What is "y"

Y \Y\ ([imac]), pron. I. [Obs.]
--King Horn. Wyclif.

Y \Y\ (w[imac]). Y, the twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, at the beginning of a word or syllable, except when a prefix (see Y-), is usually a fricative vocal consonant; as a prefix, and usually in the middle or at the end of a syllable, it is a vowel. See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect][sect] 145, 178-9, 272.

Note: It derives its form from the Latin Y, which is from the Greek [Upsilon], originally the same letter as V. Etymologically, it is most nearly related to u, i, o, and j. g; as in full, fill, AS. fyllan; E. crypt, grotto; young, juvenile; day, AS. d[ae]g. See U, I, and J, G.

Note: Y has been called the Pythagorean letter, because the Greek letter [Upsilon] was taken represent the sacred triad, formed by the duad proceeding from the monad; and also because it represents the dividing of the paths of vice and virtue in the development of human life.

Y \Y\ (w[imac]), n.; pl. Y's (w[imac]z) or Ys. Something shaped like the letter Y; a forked piece resembling in form the letter Y. Specifically:

1. One of the forked holders for supporting the telescope of a leveling instrument, or the axis of a theodolite; a wye.

2. A forked or bifurcated pipe fitting.

3. (Railroads) A portion of track consisting of two diverging tracks connected by a cross track.

   Y level (Surv.), an instrument for measuring differences of level by means of a telescope resting in Y's.

   Y moth (Zo["o]l.), a handsome European noctuid moth Plusia gamma) which has a bright, silvery mark, shaped like the letter Y, on each of the fore wings. Its larva, which is green with five dorsal white species, feeds on the cabbage, turnip, bean, etc. Called also gamma moth, and silver Y.

a late-developing letter in English. Called ipsilon in German, upsilon in Greek, the English name is of obscure origin. The sound at the beginning of yard, yes, yield, etc. is from Old English words with initial g- as in got and y- as in yet, which were considered the same sound and often transcribed as Ȝ, known as yogh. The system was altered by French scribes, who brought over the continental use of -g- and from the early 1200s used -y- and sometimes -gh- to replace Ȝ. As short for YMCA, etc., by 1915.

abbr. 1 (abbreviation of year English) 2 (context UK television English) (abbreviation of youth English), usually followed by an age appropriate for the content so marked. 3 (context computing English) (abbreviation of yes English) 4 (context slang text messaging Internet English) (abbreviation of why English) letter (Latn-def en letter 25 wye)

Y ( named wye , plural wyes) is the 25th and penultimate letter in the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. In the English writing system it sometimes represents a vowel and sometimes a consonant.

Y is an abstract strategy board game, first described by John Milnor in the early 1950s. The game was independently invented in 1953 by Craige Schensted (now Ea Ea) and Charles Titus. It is a member of the connection game family inhabited by Hex, Havannah, TwixT, and others; it is also an early member in a long line of games Ea Ea has developed, each game more complex but also more generalized.

Ȳ ( minuscule: ȳ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, formed from Y with the addition of a macron (¯).

In modern dictionaries and textbooks for Latin and Old English, ȳ may be used to indicate a long "y" . In Latin, this only occurs in loanwords. It is also used in Livonian and Cornish.

Y is the debut studio album of English post-punk band The Pop Group. It was released on April 20, 1979 through Radar Records. The album was produced by dub musician Dennis "Blackbeard" Bovell at Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey.

Y is the twenty-fifth letter of the Latin alphabet.

Y or y may also refer to:

Y is the second EP by South Korean boy band MBLAQ, and was released through J.Tune Entertainment South Korea on May 17, 2010. The only single "Y" was released to Korean music portals on the same date as the EP release. The album is labeled as a "single-album" (single or maxi single) in Korea, however, the album falls into the category of an EP (extended play or mini album), and technically does not qualify as a single.

The Y(4140) particle is an electrically neutral exotic hadron candidate that is about 4.4 times heavier than the proton. It was observed at Fermilab and announced on 17 March 2009. This particle is extremely rare and was detected in only 20 of billions of collisions.

Since it decays into J/ψ and φ mesons, it has been suggested that this particle is composed of charm quarks and charm antiquarks, possibly even a four quark combination. The existence of the particle has been confirmed by members of the CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider on November 14, 2012 and by the DØ experiment at the Tevatron on September 25, 2013. The Belle experiment has searched for this particle but found no evidence for its existence. The LHCb experiment observes a peak at the same position in the J/ψϕ invariant mass, but it is best described as a DD cusp, and is much broader than the previous measurements of the Y(4140).

The Particle Data Group has renamed Y(4140) to follow naming conventions to X(4140).

The Y(4260) is an anomalous particle with an energy of 4260 MeV which does not appear to fit into the quark model. It was discovered by the BaBar experiment at Stanford University for the Department of Energy in California and later confirmed by several other experimental collaborations. It being a Charmonium state is unlikely because the Y(4260) is heavier than DD threshold, yet sits, surprisingly in a dip in the production rate for D pairs. It is a possibility that it is a hybrid—a predicted but not-yet-seen type of particle, where a gluon is actually a permanent part of the makeup of the particle, instead of just an ephemeral messenger keeping the quarks bound together.

Y is the debut novel of American-Canadian writer Marjorie Celona. It was published in 2012 by Hamish Hamilton.