yacht meaning oxford dictionary

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Definition of yacht

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Definition of yacht  (Entry 2 of 2)

intransitive verb

Examples of yacht in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'yacht.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

obsolete Dutch jaght , from Middle Low German jacht , short for jachtschip , literally, hunting ship

1557, in the meaning defined above

1836, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing yacht

Articles related to yacht.

Why does English have so many silent...

Why does English have so many silent letters?

Inexplicable silent letters, explained

Words of the Week - March 4

The words that defined the week ending March 4th, 2022

Dictionary Entries Near yacht

yacht chair

Cite this Entry

“Yacht.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yacht. Accessed 2 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of yacht.

Kids Definition of yacht  (Entry 2 of 2)

from obsolete Dutch jaght (now jacht ), short for jachtschip, literally, "hunting ship"

More from Merriam-Webster on yacht

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for yacht

Nglish: Translation of yacht for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of yacht for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about yacht

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a vessel used for private cruising, racing, or other noncommercial purposes.

to sail, voyage, or race in a yacht.

Compare Meanings

Click for a side-by-side comparison of meanings. Use the word comparison feature to learn the differences between similar and commonly confused words.

Origin of yacht

Other words from yacht.

• yachty, adjective
• su·per·yacht, noun

Words that may be confused with yacht

• barge , boat , canoe , cruise ship , sailboat , ship , yacht

Words Nearby yacht

• Yablonovy Mountains
• Yablonovyy Range
• yacht chair

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use yacht in a sentence

As City News explained it, the bribes were paid not only in cash but through rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees, boat repairs and more.

In Ashburn, Snyder is always lurking in spirit, even if he is on his 305-foot yacht somewhere in the Aegean.

Driving across country in a gigantic land yacht —with its crushed-velour seats and faux wood siding—was more practical than a two-door hot rod.

Host Jason Moore chats with experts who share tips harvested from their real-life experiences, such as a couple who paid off their $70,000 debt to travel full time and a woman who left her corporate job to work on a yacht .

Until Thursday, when federal agents escorted him off a 150-foot yacht moored in Long Island Sound, the word often used to describe Steve Bannon was “irrelevant.”

Instead the money allegedly was spent on luxury cars and a yacht club membership, among other things.

Loeb owns a $100 million penthouse on Central Park West and a $50 million yacht .

Solaire has set up charging capabilities at a project it built at a yacht club in Massachusetts, for example.

On my way back into town, I walked by the fortress of tents surrounding the harbor, readying for the yacht show.

Newly-minted Londoner, Lindsay Lohan, is currently chilling out on a yacht in Italy.

I heard her say to one of the servants once that my father had been lost on a yacht , and that he was oh, ever such a handsome man.

He owned a 54-ton yacht named the Opal, and attributed the wonderful health he enjoyed to his numerous sea voyages.

Another yacht had started from the old boathouse at about the time our friends and their new-fangled craft got under way.

Caermarthen ordered out his wonderful yacht , and hastened to complain to the King, who was then at Loo.

The yacht had long turned the head of the island and was beating down alongshore in the eastern bay.

British Dictionary definitions for yacht

/ ( jɒt ) /

a vessel propelled by sail or power, used esp for pleasure cruising, racing, etc

short for sand yacht , ice yacht

(intr) to sail or cruise in a yacht

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Isekai, the Popular Manga and Anime Genre, Is Now in the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford's definition of isekai hints at a shift in the popular anime genre's original definition..

According to The Guardian , The Oxford English Dictionary's latest update added 23 Japanese words to its lexicon. Included among these Japanese terms like is one of the most popular anime genres: isekai.

Oxford English Dictionary's official website defines isekai as "a Japanese genre of science or fantasy fiction featuring a protagonist who is transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or unfamiliar world."

While Isekai has been colloquially understood in the U.S.anime community as an genre where a character is teleported into a fantasy world — be it through a VR device à la Sword Art Online or vehicular incidents with a white truck , the term has been slightly misapplied. According to the Tokyo-based Twitch streamer Celina, isekai's means "the story takes place in a totally different world from our real world." Meaning classic fantasy shows fans wouldn't consider to be isekai like Record of Lodoss War and contemporary anime like Delicious in Dungeon and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End could be considered isekai. Turns out the anime community's popularized definition of isekai is referring to its sub-genre.

"If it's some modern dude getting reincarnated to another world, it's called isekaitensei," Celina wrote on X/Twitter .

Celina continued in the thread, saying isekai's original definition doesn't just restrict itself to a fantasy setting either, meaning sci-fi stories can technically be an isekai as well. By that logic, Square Enix's 2017 action role-playing game, Nier: Automata , was an isekai before Sword Art Online studio A-1 Pictures turned it into anime last year .

This would probably explain why the popular fantasy anime Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation isn't called Musoku Isekai. However, other upcoming anime like the aptly titled Suicide Squad Isekai doesn't help clear up the anime community's ongoing confusion over the word's proper definition.

Grammatical history lesson aside, the Oxford dictionary will likely not have to iimmediately make an addendum to its definition on isekai. According to The Guardian , editors at the Oxford English Dictionary collaborated with researchers from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies to define isekai and other commonly borrowed cooking-related Japanese words like katsu. This would suggest the word's original definition has shiftted from its originial meaning to fit with anime fan's populalrized misuse of its subgenre. To be fair, isekai rolls off the tongue easier.

If you take anything away from this article — aside from isekai being recognized in the Oxford dicionary of course — Nintendo and Ilumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the second most successful isekai movie ever, coming second to Studio Ghibli's Golden Globe and Oscar award-winning film, The Boy and The Heron .

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.

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NEW words and meanings added: March 2024

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With the Summer Olympics coming up, the main focus for our latest release is on the world of sport.

Worrying about your team’s back four in the relegation six-pointer ? Did one of your team’s blueliners just score an empty-netter ? Or maybe you prefer T20™ , with the drama of one-dayers and super overs , or just like to pay your green fee and get started on the front nine ?

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Congratulations, anime fans: ‘isekai’ is now in the oxford english dictionary.

While many of us might think “dictionary” and imagine some stuffy old book stashed away in the corner of a school library, the English dictionary is a living document. The English language is always changing, of course, and that means the dictionary is constantly getting updated.

And so, in the final week of March 2024, the Oxford English Dictionary, which ( in Harvard’s words ) is “widely accepted as the most complete record of the English language ever assembled,” added a whole bunch of new words. You might be delighted to know that among these words are such hits as “nepo baby,” “doomscroll,” “quiet quitting,” and (my personal favorite) “underboob.”

But Oxford also added 23 new words that are borrowed from Japanese—words that both mean something very specific and that we have come to use all the time in English. Most of them relate to Japanese food: “donburi,” “onigiri,” “katsu,” “takoyaki,” and “okonomiyaki,” aside from being a shortlist of my favorite meals, all came into the Oxford English Dictionary with this new update.

But for anime and manga fans, there are two new entries which are of particular interest. One is “mangaka”—a word whose meaning that I, as someone who covers manga all the time , am honestly tired of wondering if I have to explain as an awkward aside in an article. So thank you, Oxford.

The other, amazingly, is “isekai”—a very popular, but also very specific, subgenre of manga/anime.

What is “isekai,” again?

The Oxford English Dictionary now defines isekai (pronounced EE-seh-kai) as “a Japanese genre of science or fantasy fiction featuring a protagonist who is transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or unfamiliar world. Also: an anime, manga, video game, etc., in this genre.” Which, you know, is exactly what an isekai is.

It’s hard to pinpoint “the first isekai,” because isekai has been a method of storytelling around the world for probably longer than history could say. For Western examples, consider The Chronicles of Narnia or Alice in Wonderland . Hell, you can argue Dune is an isekai. But the turning point of isekai for Japanese film- and TV-makers was arguably Hayao Miyazaki’s highly influential film Spirited Away . (If this is your first time consciously realizing Spirited Away is indeed an isekai, you’re not alone.)

By the mid-point of the 2010s, which saw the climax in the popularity of series like Sword Art Online , isekai had become one of the biggest sub-genre in all of anime. Interestingly, the Oxford English Dictionary pins the beginning of the popular use of “isekai” in the English language to 2018.

But by that point, isekai had already become so big that some have become annoyed with the genre overall, because they feel the anime market is oversaturated with isekai. There are a lot . And when a genre becomes ridiculously popular, it becomes very easy to point out all the bad ones.

Why the Oxford English Dictionary adding “isekai” matters

The Oxford English Dictionary’s inclusion of “isekai” comes at an interesting time. For one, two of the best currently-running examples of the genre— That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime and KonoSuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World! —are coming back for their third seasons as part of the spring 2024 anime lineup .

Even more importantly, anime’s influence on and inclusion in mainstream culture in English-speaking countries around the world is getting harder and harder to dismiss as niche. Polygon recently conducted a survey that showed more members of Gen Z watch anime than follow the NFL. There is now a Tamashii Nations store—a company that makes anime figurines—in Times Square. Last year, Monkey D. Luffy joined Dragon Ball ‘s Goku and Pokémon ‘s Pikachu to become the third anime character with a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade . (For the sake of argument, let’s just say Pikachu is anime for the moment.)

All of this can be summed up quite nicely by the fact that the Suicide Squad—complete with the prime character real estate of The Joker and Harley Quinn—is getting an isekai anime later this year . Seriously, it’s called Suicide Squad Isekai .

So if “underboob” (a word not unrelated to anime) can be added to the Oxford English Dictionary, surely words like “isekai” and “mangaka” are not just worthy, but even overdue.

(Image credit: Drive)

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Weebs, Rejoice: ‘Isekai’ Is Now In The Oxford Dictionary

The preeminent english dictionary also added ‘katsu’ and ‘kintsugi’ in its latest (dlc) update.

The Oxford English Dictionary (aka the OED) runs an update to its repository four times every year. Like DLC for games, these quarterly patches can introduce new words, features, and definition changes. Well, the first quarter of 2024 is about up, and the OED has just updated its linguistic repository to add 23 Japanese words, including the popular anime and manga genre “isekai.”

As spotted by The Guardian , the OED’s latest update includes Japanese words from the realms of art, cuisine, and elsewhere. The Japanese fried food appetizer “ karaage ,” which I love, made the list, as did “ kintsugi ,” the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer that highlights the flaws. And also in the mix is “ isekai ,” which the OED defines as “a Japanese genre of science or fantasy fiction featuring a protagonist who is transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or unfamiliar world. Also: an anime, manga, video game, etc., in this genre.” Think of the anime and manga Sword Art Online ( often called the harbinger of “isekai,” though not technically considered one from a purist standpoint) or the animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie ( which can also be viewed as an “isekai” ) and you’ll get a general idea. Basically, when a character awakens in another world, the OED says you can call it an “isekai.”

While there are two sub-types of the genre—standard ”isekai” or “ other world ” and “isekaitensei” or “ reincarnation into another world ”—in English, ”isekai” is the by far the more widely used term. When in certain nerd spaces, especially those revolving around anime and manga, “isekai” is generally understood to mean any story in which a character finds themself in a world that’s not their own. It seems to be an increasingly popular story format in all types of media, and as such, you’ll often see anime, games, and television described as “isekai.”

We love increasing our vocabulary and learning something new, and we can all rejoice in the fact that “isekai” and numerous other Japanese words have now been entered into the OED. I mean, this is The Oxford Dictionary, the preeminent repository of the English language for over a century. Weebs, if this isn’t the quintessential “we made it,” then I really don’t know what is.

You can check the full list of Japanese words newly added to the OED below:

Oxford Dictionary March 2024 Japanese-Word Update

• donburi, n.
• hibachi, n.
• karaage, n.
• katsu curry, n.
• kintsugi, n.
• kirigami, n.
• mangaka, n.
• okonomiyaki, n.
• omotenashi, n.
• onigiri, n.
• santoku, n.
• shibori, n.
• takoyaki, n.
• tokusatsu, n.
• tonkatsu, n.
• tonkatsu sauce, n.
• tonkotsu, n./1
• tonkotsu, n./2
• washi tape, n.
• yakiniku, n.

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isekai noun

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What does the noun isekai mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun isekai . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

How is the noun isekai pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun isekai come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun isekai is in the 2010s.

OED's earliest evidence for isekai is from 2018, in Publishers' Weekly .

isekai is a borrowing from Japanese.

Etymons: Japanese isekai .

Nearby entries

• i-scole, n. a1175
• ISDN, n. 1974–
• -ise, suffix¹
• -ise, suffix²
• I'se, phr. 1584–
• i-seche, v. Old English–1275
• i-seggen, v. Old English–1275
• Isegrim, n. a1300–
• i-sehtne, v. c1175
• iseidomal, adj. 1842–
• isekai, n. 2018–
• isel | izle, n. Old English–
• i-sele, adj. c1275
• i-seli, adj. Old English–1275
• i-selth, n. Old English–1250
• i-seme, v. Old English–1275
• i-semeliche, adv. c1275
• i-send, v. Old English–1400
• isene, adj. Old English–1500
• isenergic, adj. & n. 1902–
• isenthalpic, adj. 1925–

The diagram posits the existence of two worlds, our familiar one of physical matter..and the ‘other world’ (isekai..) whose composite units are not known.

Meaning & use

Isekai , a fantasy subgenre featuring stories in which ordinary people are transported to a magical world.

An isekai with an unconventional premise, ‘How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’, might prove to be one of the better isekai shows to come out in recent years.

I am making a..fantasy RPG with Isekai protagonist.

• K/S 1978– A subgenre of fan fiction, originally published in science fiction fanzines and now esp. online, in which the Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock…
• slipstream 1989– Literary Criticism . Fiction which, while not classified as science fiction, engages to some extent with scientific or futuristic subject matter, esp. …
• isekai 2018– A Japanese genre of science or fantasy fiction featuring a protagonist who is transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or…

Pronunciation

• ð th ee
• ɬ rhingy ll

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence <petal> /ˈpɛtl/ but <petally> /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

• a trap, bath
• ɑː start, palm, bath
• ɔː thought, force
• ᵻ (/ɪ/-/ə/)
• ᵿ (/ʊ/-/ə/)

Other symbols

• The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
• The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
• Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here .

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in <bitter>

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence <petal> /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but <petally> /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

• i fleece, happ y
• æ trap, bath
• ɑ lot, palm, cloth, thought
• ɔ cloth, thought
• ɔr north, force
• ə strut, comm a
• ər nurse, lett er
• ɛ(ə)r square
• æ̃ sal on

Simple Text Respell

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

• arr carry (British only)
• a(ng) gratin
• o lot (British only)
• orr sorry (British only)
• o(ng) salon

Variant forms

Entry history for isekai, n..

isekai, n. was first published in March 2024.

oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:

• further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into isekai, n. in March 2024.

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Citation details

Factsheet for isekai, n., browse entry.