Standard Lemma guide

yesteryear

adv · noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈjɛstəjɪə/
  • General-American: /ˈjɛstəɹˌjɪ(ə)ɹ/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-South-African: /ˈjestəjøː/
  • /ˈjɛstəjɜː/ Wales, other regions
  • CMU ARPABET: Y EH1 S T ER0 Y IH2 R Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In past years.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable, poetic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Past years; time gone by; yore.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, poetic, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Last year.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, rare, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

the time that has elapsed

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • forget the past

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: past, past times

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: time

Narrower terms: yore, bygone, water under the bridge, old, history, time immemorial, time out of mind, auld langsyne, langsyne, old times, good old days, yesterday

History

Etymology

From yester- + year.

Across languages

Translations

74 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: antany — times gone by
  • Dutch: weleer — times gone by
  • Dutch: voorbije — times gone by
  • Dutch: verleden — times gone by
  • Finnish: menneet vuodet — times gone by
  • French: jadis — times gone by
  • French: antan — times gone by
  • German: einst — times gone by
  • Greek: κάποτε (kápote) — times gone by
  • Greek: παλιά (paliá) — times gone by
  • Ido: olim — times gone by
  • Italian: passato — times gone by
  • Māori: raurangi — times gone by
  • Polish: minione lata — times gone by
  • Portuguese: outrora — times gone by
  • Spanish: antaño — times gone by
  • Ukrainian: мину́вшина (mynúvšyna) — times gone by
  • Ukrainian: мину́ле (mynúle) — times gone by
  • Vietnamese: xưa — times gone by
  • Vietnamese: thời xưa — times gone by
  • Vietnamese: ngày xưa — times gone by
  • Welsh: llynedd — times gone by
  • Armenian: հերու (heru) — last year — see also last year
  • Old Armenian: հերու (heru) — last year — see also last year
  • Basque: iaz — last year — see also last year
  • Bulgarian: лани (lani) — last year — see also last year
  • Catalan: antany — last year — see also last year
  • Czech: loni — last year — see also last year
  • Danish: i fjor — last year — see also last year
  • Dutch: gisterjaar — last year — see also last year
  • Faroese: í fjør — last year — see also last year
  • Finnish: mennyt vuosi — last year — see also last year
  • French: année passée — last year — see also last year
  • French: an passé — last year — see also last year
  • French: année dernière — last year — see also last year
  • French: an dernier — last year — see also last year
  • German: Vorjahr — last year — see also last year
  • Middle High German: vert — last year — see also last year
  • Greek: πέρυσι (pérysi) — last year — see also last year
  • Ancient Greek: πέρυσι (pérusi) — last year — see also last year
  • Hebrew: אשתקד (eshtakád) — last year — see also last year
  • Hungarian: tavaly — last year — see also last year
  • Icelandic: í fyrra — last year — see also last year
  • Irish: anuraidh — last year — see also last year
  • Italian: anno scorso — last year — see also last year
  • Japanese: 去年 (Kyonen) — last year — see also last year
  • Kashmiri: پَرُس (parus) — last year — see also last year
  • Korean: 작년 (jangnyeon) — last year — see also last year
  • Latvian: pērn — last year — see also last year
  • Latvian: pērngad — last year — see also last year
  • Low German: Vörjohr — last year — see also last year
  • Māori: tauhouanga — last year — see also last year
  • Māori: tauhounga — last year — see also last year
  • Norwegian: i fjor — last year — see also last year
  • Old Norse: fjǫrð — last year — see also last year
  • Persian: دیسال (disâl) — last year — see also last year
  • Polish: zeszły rok — last year — see also last year
  • Portuguese: ano passado — last year — see also last year
  • Portuguese: antanho — last year — see also last year
  • Russian: в прошлом году (v prošlom godu) — last year — see also last year
  • Sanskrit: परुत् (parut) — last year — see also last year
  • Serbo-Croatian: lani — last year — see also last year
  • Serbo-Croatian: лани — last year — see also last year
  • Slovak: vlani — last year — see also last year
  • Slovene: láni — last year — see also last year
  • Spanish: antaño — last year — see also last year
  • Spanish: año pasado — last year — see also last year
  • Swedish: i fjol — last year — see also last year
  • Swedish: i fjor — last year — see also last year
  • Old Swedish: fiordh — last year — see also last year
  • Turkish: bıldır — last year — see also last year
  • Ukrainian: торі́к (torík) — last year — see also last year
  • Ukrainian: мину́лого ро́ку (mynúloho róku) — last year — see also last year
  • Welsh: llynedd — last year — see also last year