Definition of: y, Y

(wī) noun plural y's, Y's, or ys, Ys or wyes (wīz)
1. The 25th letter of the English alphabet: ultimately from Phoenician vau, Greek upsilon. The Romans took it from the Greek alphabet sometime in the first century B.C. and used it as a vowel.
2. The sound of the letter y. Initial y (introducing either a vowel or a syllable) is a voiced palatal semivowel, as in yet, you, yonder, beyond. Final y is either a vowel, pronounced (ē), as in honey, pretty, steady; a diphthong, pronounced (ī), as in fly, my; or the final glide of a diphthong, as in gray, obey, annoy. Internal y is pronounced as a vowel (i), as in lyric, myth, syllable; a diphthong (ī), as in lyre, type, psychic; an r-colored central vowel (ûr) or (ər), as in myrtle, martyr. See ALPHABET.