noun
- The rotation of an aircraft, ship, or missile about its vertical axis so as to cause the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, ship, or missile to deviate from the flight line or heading in its horizontal plane.
- The angle between the longitudinal axis of a projectile at any moment and the tangent to the trajectory in the corresponding point of flight of the projectile.
- A vessel's motion rotating about the vertical axis, so the bow yaws from side to side; a characteristic of unsteadiness.
- The extent of yawing, the rotation angle about the vertical axis
verb
- To turn about the vertical axis while maintaining course.
- To swerve off course to port or starboard.
- To steer badly, zigzagging back and forth across the intended course of a boat; to go out of the line of course.
- To rise in blisters, breaking in white froth, as cane juice in the clarifiers in sugar works.
Pronunciation
About this word
Yaw is a 2-meaning word in English. Shorter words have fewer anagrams.
This page shows the definition of yaw along with every other word you can make from its letters. Click the link above to see all anagrams and shorter words formed from the same set of letters.
How to use this page
Every word in our dictionary has its own page like this one. Here you can:
- Read the definition — see what the word means, how it is used in context, and which part of speech it belongs to.
- Hear the pronunciation — when an audio recording is available, press the play button to hear the word spoken aloud.
- Browse synonyms — see related words that share a similar meaning, useful for expanding your vocabulary.
- Find anagrams — click "Other words from yaw's letters" to see every word you can spell using the same letters.
Words in word games
If you are playing a word game, knowing whether a word is valid is essential. Yaw appears in our 370,000-word English dictionary, which includes most words accepted in Scrabble and Words With Friends. However, always check the official word list for the specific game you are playing, as different games use different dictionaries.
Scrabble
In Scrabble, the valid word lists are the Official Tournament and Club Word List (OTCWL/NWL) for North America and the Collins Scrabble Words (CSW) for international play. Our dictionary covers most words in both lists, but some proper nouns, abbreviations, and offensive terms may differ.
Wordle
Wordle uses its own curated word list that is smaller than the full Scrabble dictionary. If Yaw appears here, it may or may not be a valid Wordle answer — but it is a real English word regardless.
Try it interactively
Open Yaw in the interactive unscrambler →
More word resources
Explore our guides for more word game help:
Or see all our guides on the blog index.