yes — ONAD · Shobdo

yes /yes, jɛs

▸ exclamation

1 used to give an affirmative response:

“Do you understand?” “Yes.”.

▪ expressing agreement with a positive statement just made:

“That was a grand evening.” “Yes, it was.”.

▪ asked at the end of a statement to indicate the expectation of agreement:

you think I perhaps killed Westbourne, yes?

▪ expressing contradiction of a negative statement:

“You don't want to go.” “Yes, I do.”.

2 used as a response to someone addressing one or otherwise trying to attract one's attention:

“Oh, Mr. Lawrence.” “Yes?”.

3 used to question a remark or ask for more detail about it:

“It should be easy to check.” “Oh yes? How?”.

4 encouraging someone to continue speaking:

“When you bought those photographs …” “Yes?”.

5 expressing delight:

plenty to eat, including hot roast beef sandwiches (yes!).

▸ noun

(plural yeses or yesses)

an affirmative answer or decision, especially in voting:

answering with assured and ardent yeses.

– PHRASES
yes and no
partly and partly not:

“Did it come as a surprise to you?” “Yes and no.”.

– ORIGIN Old English gēse, gīse, probably from an unrecorded phrase meaning ‘may it be so’.