ay

Clipping of English Aymara or Spanish aymara.

ay

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Aymara.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Aymara terms

From Middle English ei, ej, ey, eye, ultimately imitative of the natural utterance, although probably also influenced by Anglo-Norman and Old French ahi, Old French haï, and Middle French aï, aïe, ay.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /aɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophones: aye, eye, I

ay

1. Ah! alas! Expressing anger, alarm, frustration, pain, etc.

   Alternative forms: aie, aye

   • 1559, Lucius, Anneus, Seneca, translated by Iasper Heywood, “The Preface to the Tragedye”, in The Sixt Tragedie of the Most Graue and Prudent Author Lucius, Anneus, Seneca, Entituled Troas, […], London: […] Richard Tottyll, →OCLC, signature [A5], verso:

     And ſuch as yet, coulde neuer weapon wꝛeſt, / But on the lappe are woont to dandled be, / Ne yet foꝛgotten had the mothers bꝛeſt, / How greekes them ſlew, alas here ſhall ye ſe, / To make repoꝛte therof, ay woe is me, / My ſong is miſchiefe, murder miſerye.

2. (now chiefly Northern England and Scotland) Expressing earnestness, surprise, wonder, etc.
   • 1863, Mrs. Toogood, Specimens of the Yorkshire Dialect; quoted in “Ay (ēⁱ), int.”, in James A[ugustus] H[enry] Murray [et al.], editors, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volumes I (A–B), London: Clarendon Press, 1884–1928, →OCLC, page 601, column 2:

     Ay my word! I am glad to see you.

   • 1888 December 9, Æthelbert [Binns], “Thoughts in Verse. On Finding a Buttercup.”, in The Keighley News, Keighley, West Yorkshire, published 16 March 1889, →OCLC, page 7, column 7:

     Ay! bonny little buttercup, what are ta dewin’ heear, / Hoddin’ up thi tiny heead, this raw, cowd time o’ t’year?

   • 1917 December 29, “Mary Maxwell; or, The Shadow on the Manse”, in The People’s Journal, Dundee, →OCLC, page 6, column 3:

     “Ay, I’m glad he’s going to be mairrit,” he said a few minutes later as he sat in the manse kitchen.

   • 1930 January 4, Northern Weekly Gazette, Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, →OCLC, page 21, column 3:

     AY BY GUM. They’ve summat to put up wi’ hez t’ tram conductors, especially wheer t’ swells lives.

   • 2011, Cynthia B. Huntington, “Full Circle”, in Through Her Eyes: An Infidel’s Perspective […], [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 88:

     Ay, lass, you’ve ruined your chances now. When you left for New York to become a Pan Am stewardess we thought you’d got it made.

3. Used in ay, ay.

See aye.

• IPA^(key): /aɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophones: aye, eye, I

ay

1. (Mid-Ulster, others) Alternative spelling of aye (“yes”).
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, “Robin Hood Turns Butcher”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part second, page 48:

     "Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow," quoth Robin; "thou seemest happy this merry morn."
     "Ay, that am I," quoth the jolly Butcher; "and why should I not be so? […]"

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 284:

     I swear also that I will honour and will cherish thee, Kallikrates, who hast been swept by the wave of time back into my arms, ay, till the very end, come it soon or late.

ay (plural ays)

1. Alternative spelling of aye (“yes”).

   counting the ays and the noes in a vote

From Middle English ai, from Old Norse ei, from Proto-Germanic *aiwaz (“eternity, age”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“vitality”); cognate with Old English ā, Ancient Greek ἀεί (aeí, “always”), and Latin aevum (“an age”).

• aye

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: A, a, eh

ay (not comparable)

1. (archaic, poetic or Northern England or Scotland) Always; ever; continually; for an indefinite time.
   • 1670, John Barbour, The Acts and Life of the most victorious Conquerour Robert Bruce King of Scotland, as cited in 1860, Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-poetica, page 160

     O he that hath ay lived free, [...]

• always
• continually
• forever

• ay-green
• forever and ay

ay (plural ays)

1. Alternative form of a: the name of the Latin-script letter A/a.
   • 2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170:

     It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, "Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh."

   • 2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), p. 3-5

     ETA [is spoken] as "ee-tee-ay" instead of "I SPELL Echo Tango Alfa".

• → Rohingya: ee
• → Tagalog: ey

• IPA^(key): /eɪ/, (New Zealand) [æe̯]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: A, eh

ay

1. New Zealand spelling of eh (question tag).
   • 2013 November 13, “Surprising changes in the way Aucklanders speak”, in Stuff‎^[1]:

     For example, New Zealanders tended to say "ay" at the end of sentences, but in the Asian community people used different tags to check whether people were still listening.

• aye

Origin uncertain; possibly related to eh and hey; popularized by a catch phrase in a 1970s sitcom.

• IPA^(key): /eɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: A, a, eh

ay

1. All right (inter); hooray (inter); cool (inter).

• Ay in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• Ya, YA, ya

ay (Kana spelling アイ)

1. arrow

• Batchelor, John (1926) An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary, third edition, Tokyo: Kyobunkan
• “ay (アイ)”, in Ainu-English Dictionary‎^[2], TranslationDirectory.com, 1 May 2023 (last accessed)

• ai

ay

1. he

ay

1. (Mpakwithi) vegetable

• Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 184

Inherited from Proto-Turkic *āy (“moon, month”). Cognate with Chuvash уйӑх (ujăh) See Turkish ay for more cognates.

• IPA^(key): /ɑj/

• Audio (Baku):

  (file)

ay (definite accusative ayı, plural aylar)

1. moon
2. month
3. date (day of the month)

   Bu gün ayın neçəsidir? ― What date is it today?

Beja cardinal numbers

<  4	5	6  >
Cardinal : ay

From ay (“hand”).

ay m (feminine ayt)

1. five

Uncertain.

ay

1. hand

• Reinisch, Leo (1895) Wörterbuch der Beḍauye-Sprache‎^[3] (in German), Wien, Austria, pages 295, 293

ay

1. Indicates the future tense.

Inherited from Proto-Turkic *āy (“moon, month”). Compare Turkish ay (“moon, month”).

ay

1. month
2. moon

• Mirjejev, V. A., Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎^[4], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN
• “ay”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

• IPA^(key): [ˈaɪ]

ay

1. obsolete spelling of aj

• IPA^(key): /ɑj/

Inherited from Old Anatolian Turkish آیْ (ay), from Proto-Turkic *āy (“moon, month”).^[1] Compare Turkish ay (“moon, month”), Azerbaijani ay.

ay (definite accusative ayı, plural aylar)

1. moon

   dolu ay

   full moon

   eni ay

   new moon

   ay tutulması

   lunar eclipse

   (literally, “the holding of the moon”)

2. month

   ay bitkisi

   the end of the month

   aydan aya

   from month to month

Clipping of ayoz.

ay (definite accusative ayı, plural aylar)

1. saint

Inherited from Old Anatolian Turkish هَایْ (hay). Compare Turkish ay. ^[2]

• hay

ay

1. (informal) Used to express joy, surprise, pain, frustraiton, shock etc., wow! oh my God! oh!

   ay, ne gözäl!

   wow, how beautiful!

   ay! Acêêr!

   Ouch! It hurts!

   ay, ne titsi!

   Oh, how terrible!

2. (informal, when repeated twice) Used to express reproach, oh, well, eh, oh my

   ay-ay, oolum!

   oh my, son!

• N. A Baskakov, editor (1972), “ай”, in Gagauzsko-Russko-Moldavskij Slovarʹ [Gagauz-Russian-Moldovan Dictionary], Moskva: Izdatelʹstvo Sovetskaja Enciklopedija, →ISBN, page 30
• Kopuşçu M. İ. , Todorova S. A. , Kiräkova T.İ., editors (2019), “ay”, in Gagauzça-rusça sözlük: klaslar 5-12, Komrat: Gagauziya M.V. Maruneviç adına Bilim-Aaraştırma merkezi, →ISBN, page 21
• Mavrodi M. F., editor (2019), “ay”, in Gagauzça-rusça sözlük: klaslar 1-4, Komrat: Gagauziya M.V. Maruneviç adına Bilim-Aaraştırma merkezi, →ISBN, page 13

ay

1. leaf

• Elson, Benjamin F., Gutiérrez G., Donaciano (1999) Diccionario popoluca de la Sierra, Veracruz (Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”; 41)‎^[5] (in Spanish), Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., →ISBN, page 10

From Old Spanish ha i (“it has there”).

ay

1. there is, there are

Borrowed from Old Norse ei, ey, from Proto-Germanic *aiwa, *aiwō (“ever, always”).

• ai, ey

• IPA^(key): /æi̯/

ay

1. always, constantly, unceasingly; eternally, forever

• English: aye
• Yola: aye

• “ai, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

ay

1. alternative form of ey (“egg”)

ay

1. first-person singular present indicative of avoir

ay

1. leaf
2. brim (of a hat)

• Harrison, Roy, B. de Harrison, Margaret, López Juárez, Francisco, Ordoñes, Cosme (1984) Vocabulario zoque de Rayón (Serie de diccionarios y vocabularios indígenas Mariano Silva y Aceves; 28)‎^[6] (in Spanish), México, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 4

From Proto-Turkic *āy (“moon, month”).

ay (3rd person possessive [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. moon

Tenishev, Edhem (1976) “ay”, in Stroj salárskovo jazyká [Grammar of Salar], Moscow

Inherited from Middle English ey.

• ae

ay

1. An exclamation of surprise or wonder.

• aye

ay

1. yes; yea; a word expressing assent, or an affirmative answer to a question

ay

1. alternative form of aye

• “ay, adv.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 24 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “ay, interj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 24 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
• “ay, interj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 24 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
• “aye, adv.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 24 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

ay ?

1. dog

• IPA^(key): /ˈai/ [ˈai̯]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ai
• Syllabification: ay
• Homophone: hay

Onomatopoeic.

¡ay!

1. ah!, alas!
2. woe!
3. expresses pain, sorrow, or surprise
   • 1877, Benito Pérez Galdós, Gloria:

     ¡Ay de ti si no te rebelas!

     Woe is you if you do not rebel!

ay

1. obsolete spelling of hay

• “ay”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

• IPA^(key): /ai̯/, [a̠i̯], [ɑ̟i̯]

ay

1. alternative spelling of ai

Compare Hanunoo ay, Cebuano kay, Remontado Agta ay, and Ibanag ay. Similar function to Kapampangan yang, Ilocano ket and Pangasinan et.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔaj/ [ʔaɪ̯], (colloquial) /ʔe/ [ʔɛ]
• Rhymes: -aj
• Syllabification: ay

ay (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜌ᜔)

1. Separates the subject and the predicate. Indicative of a sentence inversion, i.e. from predicate-first form to subject-first form.

   Ako ay Pilipino. (Pilipino ako.)

   I am Filipino.

   Ika'y isang sirena. (Sirena ka.)

   You're a mermaid.

2. then; so

   Kung gayon ay sumunod sa akin

   If that is so then follow me

3. (dialectal) Particle used in start or end of sentences to express warning or catch attention. See also: a, o, oy, and aya / ayaa.

   Parini ka ay/Ay, parini ka. ― Come here.

• (inversion marker): This word is often confused (by speakers of English or similar languages) to mean to be due to its similarity in location on sentences in subject-first form.
• This is usually elided to 'y following a word ending in a vowel in speeches, casual, or poetic writing.

• 'y — elided form, informal, following a word ending with a vowel or "n"
• e

From Proto-Austronesian *ai and/or Spanish ay. Related to English ay. Compare Hokkien 哎 (ai).

• hay

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈʔaj/ [ˈʔaɪ̯]
• Rhymes: -aj
• Syllabification: ay

ay (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜌ᜔)

1. general exclamation: alas; no; oh; oops

   Ay! Nahulog.

   Oops! It fell.

   Ay! Mali.

   Oh! It's wrong.

• ayayay

Borrowed from English i, the English name of the letter I / i.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔaj/ [ʔaɪ̯]
• Rhymes: -aj
• Syllabification: ay

ay (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜌ᜔)

1. the name of the Latin-script letter I/i, in the Filipino alphabet

   Synonym: (in the Abecedario and Abakada alphabet) i

• (Latin-script letter names) titik; ey, bi, si, di, i, ef, dyi, eyts, ay, dyey, key, el, em, en, enye, en dyi, o, pi, kyu, ar, es, ti, yu, vi, dobolyu, eks, way, zi

• “ay”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018

• ya

From Proto-Tai *ʔajᴬ (“to cough”). Cognate with Northern Thai ᩋᩱ, Lao ໄອ (ʼai), Lü ᦺᦀ (˙ʼay), Shan ဢႆ (ʼǎi), Tai Nüa ᥟᥭ (ʼay), Aiton ဢႝ (ʼay), Ahom 𑜒𑜩 (ʼay), Zhuang ae, Saek ไอ๋, Thai ไอ (ai).

• (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [ʔaj˧˧]
• (Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [ʔaj˦˥]

ay

1. to cough

   da ay ― cough medicine

   ay oóc lượt ― to cough up blood

   ay oóc ngạp ― to cough up sputum

   ay khảu bẳng ― to cough into a tube (in fear of it being too noisy)

   ay mí oóc ngạp ― to have a dry cough (literally, “to cough without sputum”)

   ay bấu oóc pác ― to cough without a sound

   tầư lồm đảng, me̱n ay

   They caught the cold wind so they coughed.

• Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎^[7][8] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
• Léopold Michel Cadière (1910) Dictionnaire Tày-Annamite-Français [Tày-Vietnamese-French Dictionary]‎^[9] (in French), Hanoi: Impressions d'Extrême-Orient

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish آی (ay, “moon, month, crescent, a beautiful face”), from Proto-Turkic *āy (“moon, month”).^[1]

Cognate with Old Turkic 𐰖 (y¹ /⁠ay⁠/, “moon, month”), Karakhanid ااىْ (āy, “moon, month”), Old Uyghur 𐽰𐽰𐽶 (ay, “moon, month”), Azerbaijani ay (“moon”), Bashkir ай (ay, “moon”), Chuvash уйӑх (ujăh, “moon”), Kazakh ай (ai, “moon”), Khakas ай (ay, “moon”), Kyrgyz ай (ay, “moon”), Southern Altai ай (ay, “moon”), Tatar ай (ay, “moon”), Turkmen āý (“moon”), Tuvan ай (ay, “moon”), Uyghur ئاي (ay, “moon”), Uzbek oy (“moon”), Yakut ый (ıy, “moon”).

• IPA^(key): /ɑj/

• Audio:

  (file)

ay (definite accusative ayı, plural aylar)

1. moon

   Ay'a ilk ayak basan insan Neil Armstrong'tur.

   The first person to set foot on the Moon was Neil Armstrong.

2. month

   Bir yılda 12 ay var.

   There are 12 months in a year.

From Ottoman Turkish آی (ay!), akin to Karakhanid [script needed] (ay!, “oh!”), Old Uyghur 𐽰𐽶𐽶 (ay!, “hey!, oh!”).

ay

1. exclamation of surprise, shock or fear: oh!

   Ay kim gelmiş! ― Oh, (look) who is (apparently) here!

2. exclamation of pain: ouch!

   Ay, başım! ― Ouch, my head (hurts)!

• ayol

• hay!
• ey!

• “ay”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu

ay

1. some (plural indefinite article)

Precedes the noun.

• IPA^(key): /aj/

ay

1. I (first person pronoun)

ay

1. iron

• Beria-English English-Beria Dictionary [provisional] ADESK, Iriba, Kobe Department, Chad