Yum

How to spell yum

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce yum

What does yum mean?

1. interjectionAn exclamation expressing pleasure or delight at the taste or prospect of food.

Yum in a sentence

• The children shouted yum when the pizza arrived.

• Yum was the only word she could manage after the first bite of cake.

Where does yum come from?

Language of origin: Other

Yum is an imitative or echoic word, meaning it was coined to mimic the satisfied sound a person makes when eating something delicious rather than being borrowed from another language. It first appears in English in the form 'yum-yum' during the nineteenth century, recorded as a playful exclamation of pleasure at the prospect of tasty food. The single 'yum' developed naturally as a shortened version of that reduplicated phrase. Because it grew out of an instinctive vocal noise rather than a written root, its spelling has always been phonetic and simple, with no hidden silent letters or foreign endings to trip the writer. The same impulse that produced 'yum' lies behind the related adjective 'yummy', which became common in everyday speech in the early twentieth century.

How the word is built

• yum (imitative root, expressing delight in taste)