yesterday
/ˈjɛstɹdeɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.91 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The day immediately before today; one day ago.
noun
The past, often in terms of being outdated.
adv
On the day before today.
Example Sentences
- "Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow."
- "Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow."
- "Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …"
- "Yesterday / All my troubles seemed so far away / Now it looks as though they're here to stay / Oh, I believe in yesterday"
- "yesterday's technology"
- "The worker of today is different from that of yesterday."
Etymology
From Middle English yesterday, yisterday, ȝesterdai, ȝisterdai, from Old English ġiestrandæġ, ġister dæġ, ġestor dæġ, ġeostran dæġ (“yesterday”), by surface analysis, yester- + day. Cognate with Scots yisterday, yesterday (“yesterday”), Saterland Frisian jässendeeg, järsendeges (“yesterday”, adverb), West Frisian justerdei (“yesterday”), Dutch gisterdag (“yesterday”), dialectal German gestertag (“yesterday”), Swedish gårdag (“yesterday”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (gistradagis, “tomorrow”, adverb). Compare further Dutch gisteren (“yesterday”), German gestern (“yesterday”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: yesterday, ġiestrandæġ
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈjɛstɹdeɪ/
- British English: /ˈjɛstədeɪ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
born yesterday
day before yesterday
remember like it was yesterday
yesterday but one
yesterday is gone
yesterday night
yesterday-today-and-tomorrow
yesterday-today-tomorrow