yell

UK/jɛl/US/jɛl/

verbB13 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,623 of 15,258mostly spoken

Other forms: yelling, yelled, yells

To yell is to let a sound out at full volume, with or without words in it. A parent yelling up the stairs that dinner is ready, a crowd yelling when the ball goes in, a man yelling because he has dropped a hammer on his foot.

The little word after yell decides what is happening. Yell at somebody and you are angry with them; yell to somebody across a car park and you are only making yourself heard; yell for help and you want someone to come running. Yell is a noun too — she let out a yell and sat down hard. Among the loud words, shout is the plain one, scream is high and frightened, and yell sits between them: loud, rough, and cross. Americans yell where the British more often shout, and neither side is wrong.

Definitions of yell

1verbyellTo make a loud, rough cry, in anger, pain or excitement.B1~2%
“He yelled when the cold water hit him.”
synonyms: shout, holler, bellow
2verbfullTo say something at full volume so that it is heard.B1~2%
“She yelled the address through the window as the taxi pulled away.”
3nounloudA loud rough cry.B1~96%
“There was a yell from the kitchen and then silence.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 6 sentences found in the wild and placed 6 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

yell is a way of using your voice.

Also accepted in games: shout, scream

Where it comes from

Yell is Old English giellan, from Proto-Germanic gellana, and it has held the same job for well over a thousand years without changing much. Dutch gillen and German gellen are the same word, still meaning to yell. Behind all of them sits a Proto-Indo-European root that has been making noise since before any of these languages existed.

Proto-Indo-European
*gʰel-
Proto-Germanic
*gellaną
Old English
ġiellan
Middle English
ȝellen
English, today
yell

regarding the deletion of yell at From Middle English ȝellen, yellen, from Old English ġiellan, from Proto-Germanic gellaną. Cognate with stq gälje (“to yell”), Dutch gillen (“to yell”), German Low German gellen (“to yell”), German gellen (“to yell”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Verbs, A Man Called Ove, Sounds & Noises

First appears in chapter 6 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

yell in the wild

The Aggie Yell Leaders are a group of Texas A&M University students that lead Aggie fans in a series of "yells" during athletic events or other school events.
Aggie Yell Leaders
The rebel yell was a battle cry used by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.
Rebel yell
Confederate soldiers used the yell when charging to intimidate the enemy and boost their own morale, although the yell had many other uses.
Rebel yell
A battle cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle.
Battle cry (disambiguation)
Since the 1950s, incoming students have been offered orientations, led by current students, which teach the various traditions, songs, and yells in current use.
Traditions of Texas A&M University

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

yellow

Definitions of yell

1verbyellTo make a loud, rough cry, in anger, pain or excitement.B1~2%

“He yelled when the cold water hit him.”

synonyms: shout, holler, bellow

2verbfullTo say something at full volume so that it is heard.B1~2%

“She yelled the address through the window as the taxi pulled away.”

3nounloudA loud rough cry.B1~96%

“There was a yell from the kitchen and then silence.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 6 sentences found in the wild and placed 6 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

yell is a way of using your voice.

Also accepted in games: shout, scream