English Reference
verb · noun

yell

v. · n.
US /ˈjɛɫ/ UK /jˈɛl/ yell UK spelling yelled, yells

  1. 01 B2 Upper Intermediate Informal

    v.to speak to someone angrily because they did something wrong.

    v.to rebuke or scold someone in a loud, aggressive manner. Often used with the preposition 'at'.

    Simple

    My boss yelled at me for being ten minutes late to the meeting.

    In context

    She hated it when her parents yelled at her in front of her friends, finding the public reprimand deeply humiliating.

    scoldtell offberate
  2. 02 B1 Intermediate

    n.a loud shout or cry.

    n.a sudden, loud vocalisation, often expressing a specific emotion or signal.

    Simple

    A loud yell came from the garden when he saw the spider.

    In context

    The sudden yell from the back of the auditorium interrupted the speaker's closing remarks and startled the entire audience.

In a small room in Edinburgh, Megan Tomei is cleat-clipped into a stationary bike, yelling above the music as she leads a high-intensity spin class gone wrong.

The Guardian· 18 Aug 2026

Then we’re into classic lower-league football, just people sitting there yelling stuff.

The Guardian· 27 Aug 2026

Etymology 1

From Middle English ȝellen, yellen, from Old English ġiellan, from Proto-Germanic *gellaną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gälje (“to yell”), Dutch gillen (“to yell”), German Low German gellen (“to yell”), German gellen (“to yell”).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Scots yeld (“ceasing to give milk”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Origin gem-pro *gellaną
Level C1 · Advanced
Frequency Frequent
Updated