yay

«yay» in Mova's school dictionary: A cry of joy, excitement or approval, like «hooray» — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

interjection (yay — informal); adverb (yay — US informal, «yay big»)

meaning for a pupil

1) (informal) A cry of joy, excitement or approval, like «hooray». tree →

2) (US, informal) This much; about this size, shown with the hands: «yay big», «yay high». tree →

sense in the lessons

Very common in children's talk, messages and stories with real speech: «Yay, it's snowing!» Tells the reader a character is happy. Sometimes said in a flat voice to mean the opposite (sarcasm): «Oh yay, more homework.»

examples

• Yay! We won the match! tree →
• Yay, it's pizza night! tree →
• The class cheered «Yay!» when the bell rang. tree →
• «Oh yay, more homework,» he said, not happy at all. tree →
• The fish was about yay big. tree →
• Yay for Gran, who baked the cake! tree →

note

Informal; not for formal writing except in speech. Do not confuse with «yeah» (yes) or «nay» (no). Sarcastic «yay» means the speaker is not pleased.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «yay» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.