Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Yam |
YamNoun1. Edible tuber of any of several yams. 2. Any of a number of tropical vines of the genus Dioscorea many having edible tuberous roots. 3. Sweet potato with deep orange flesh that remains moist when baked. 4. Edible tuberous root of various yam plants of the genus Dioscorea grown in the tropics world-wide for food. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "yam" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1776. (references) |
Synonym: YamSynonym: yam plant (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Yam is the common name for members of the Dioscoreaceae family. Some species are cultivated for consumption in Africa and Asia. They are used as a potato substitute in some countries, especially where potatoes were not found naturally, and are often confused with the sweet potato.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Yam."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Vegetable | Bush, jungle, prairie; heath, heather; fern, bracken; furze, gorse, whin; grass, turf; pasture, pasturage; turbary; sedge, rush, weed; fungus, mushroom, toadstool; lichen, moss, conferva, mold; growth; alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan; blow, blowth; floret, petiole; pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Yam |
| English words defined with "yam": air potato ♦ Buckra ♦ cush-cush ♦ Dioscorea bulbifera, Dioscorea trifida ♦ Sechium. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "yam": TO YAM. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Yam" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Dutch (yam), Xhosa (My). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | I Yam Lovesick (1938) Yau ching yam shui baau (2001) Yam Shel D'maot (2000) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Yam" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 59.09% of the time. "Yam" is used about 22 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 59.09% | 13 | 97,576 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 18.18% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Noun (proper) | 13.64% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 4.55% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (common) | 4.55% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 22 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "yam" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Yam | Last name | 200 | 38,788 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "yam": Chinese yam ♦ elephant yam ♦ water yam ♦ white yam ♦ wild yam ♦ yam bean ♦ yam family ♦ yam plant. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "yam": yam-cultivating, yam-ma. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "yam"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | zhardhok (bulb, earth-nut, tuber), patate e ëmbël. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | ضرب من البطاطا, بطاطا (potato, spud). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | сладък картоф (batata, sweet potato). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chamorro | dagon haya. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 藷 (potato), 薯类 (yams), 薯 (potato). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | sladká brambora, jam. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | yamsrod, yams, kinayams. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | yamswortel (Chinese potato, Chinese yam, greater yam, water yam, white yam), yam (Chinese potato, Chinese yam, greater yam, water yam, white yam). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | ignamo (sweet potato). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | jams. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | سیب زمینی هندی(گ.ش), سیب زمینی شیرین . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | jamssi (Chinese potato, Chinese yam). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | igname. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Süßkartoffel, Yamswurzel. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | γλυκοπατάτα (sweet potato), είδοσ ηλυκοπατάτασ, διοσκοριδία. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | תפוח א"מ" מתוק, תפוח א"מ" (potato), בטט" (batata, sweet potato). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | jamgyökér, jamgubó, batáta (spanish potato, sweet potato). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | umbi rambat. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | igname della Cina (Chinese potato, Chinese yam, greater yam, water yam, white yam), igname (Chinese potato, Chinese yam), batata (Chinese potato, Chinese yam). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 長芋 , 八つ , 山芋 , とろろ芋 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ながいも (Chinese yam), やまいも, やつがしら, とろろいも. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 서양 구마 (yams). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papago | ohkowi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pidgin English | fufu (pounded yam). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | yamay inhame (yams). (various references) ямс (yams). (various references) jam. (various references) patati duci. (various references) ñame, camote (sweet potato), batata (batata, sweet potato), boniato (sweet potato). (various references) jams (Chinese potato, Chinese yam), jamsrot. (various references) tatlı patates (batata, sweet potato, yank), hint yer elması. (various references) ямс. (various references) is. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | DIOSCOREA, Dioscorea spp., DIOSCOREA TRIFIDA, Ipomoea. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "yam": yamalka, yamalkas, yamen, yamens, yammer, yammered, yammerer, yammerers, yammering, yammers, yams, yamulka, yamulkas, yamun, yamuns. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "yam": cocoyam. (additional references) | |
Words containing "yam": bayamo, bayamos, cocoyams, hyoscyamine, hyoscyamines, polyamide, polyamides, polyamine, polyamines. (additional references) | |
| |
"Yam" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ayam, ayan, ayem, ayum, eyam, Hypam, iama, ibam, iom, isam, myma, Nyum, Pymar, xam, yaa, yaal, yaan, yaaz, yab, yac, yad, Yadm, yae, yag, yai, yaj, yal, yame, yami, yamk, yamu, yamy, yan, yana, yani, yano, yanz, yao, yaq, yar, yarm, yas, yat, yau, yav, yax, yay, yaz, ybam, yeam, yeb, yeh, yej, yem, yeq, yev, yham, yhm, yian, yim, ym, yma, Ymi, ymm, ymo, ymp, yna, yoan, yome, yomi, yomp, yoom, yorm, yumm, yun, zam. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "yam" (pronounced ya"m) |
| 2 | -a" m | am, Bam, cam, Cham, clam, cram, dam, damn, dram, exam, Flam, gram, ham, jam, jamb, Lam, lamb, Nam, Pam, ram, scam, sham, slam, spam, swam, Tam, tram, wham. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: may. | |
| Words within the letters "a-m-y" | |
-1 letter: am, ay, ma, my, ya. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-m-y" | |
+1 letter: amyl, army, cyma, gamy, many, maya, mayo, mays, mazy, myna, yams. | |
+2 letters: abysm, ambry, amity, amply, amyls, anomy, atomy, balmy, barmy, beamy, campy, cymae, cymar, cymas, embay, etyma, flamy, foamy, gamay, gamey, gammy, hammy, jammy, lamby, loamy, madly, malmy, malty, mamey, mammy, mangy, manly, marly, marry, marvy, mashy, massy, matey, mayan, mayas, maybe, mayed, mayor, mayos, mayst, mealy, meany, meaty, moray, mynah, mynas, myoma, palmy, rammy, seamy, swamy, tammy, tryma, yamen, yamun. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Usage Frequency 8. Names: Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
