Words whose 8th letter is Y

Affinity (n.) Relationship by marriage (as between a husband and his wife's blood relations, or between a wife and her husband's blood relations); -- in contradistinction to consanguinity, or relationship by blood; -- followed by with, to, or between.

Allogamy (n.) Fertilization of the pistil of a plant by pollen from another of the same species; cross-fertilization.

Almighty (a.) Unlimited in might; omnipotent; all-powerful; irresistible.

Amphistylic (a.) Having the mandibular arch articulated with the hyoid arch and the cranium, as in the cestraciont sharks; -- said of a skull.

Antinomy (n.) A contradiction or incompatibility of thought or language; -- in the Kantian philosophy, such a contradiction as arises from the attempt to apply to the ideas of the reason, relations or attributes which are appropriate only to the facts or the concepts of experience.

Arrasways (adv.) Placed in such a position as to exhibit the top and two sides, the corner being in front; -- said of a rectangular form.

Arsenopyrite (n.) A mineral of a tin-white color and metallic luster, containing arsenic, sulphur, and iron; -- also called arsenical pyrites and mispickel.

Asperity (n.) Roughness of surface; unevenness; -- opposed to smoothness.

Asperity (n.) Moral roughness; roughness of manner; severity; crabbedness; harshness; -- opposed to mildness.

Audacity (n.) Reckless daring; presumptuous impudence; -- implying a contempt of law or moral restraints.

Autarchy (n.) Self-sufficiency.

Autogamy (n.) Self-fertilization, the fertilizing pollen being derived from the same blossom as the pistil acted upon.

Autonomy (n.) The power or right of self-government; self-government, or political independence, of a city or a state.

Bayberry (n.) The fruit of Myrica cerifera (wax myrtle); the shrub itself; -- called also candleberry tree.

Beggarly (a.) In the condition of, or like, a beggar; suitable for a beggar; extremely indigent; poverty-stricken; mean; poor; contemptible.

Billyboy (n.) A flat-bottomed river barge or coasting vessel.

Breviary (n.) A book containing the daily public or canonical prayers of the Roman Catholic or of the Greek Church for the seven canonical hours, namely, matins and lauds, the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, vespers, and compline; -- distinguished from the missal.

Buoyancy (n.) Cheerfulness; vivacity; liveliness; sprightliness; -- the opposite of heaviness; as, buoyancy of spirits.

Calamity (n.) Any great misfortune or cause of misery; -- generally applied to events or disasters which produce extensive evil, either to communities or individuals.

Capacity (n.) The power of receiving or containing; extent of room or space; passive power; -- used in reference to physical things.

Cherimoyer (n.) A small downy-leaved tree (Anona Cherimolia), with fragrant flowers. It is a native of Peru.

Chivalry (n.) The dignity or system of knighthood; the spirit, usages, or manners of knighthood; the practice of knight-errantry.

Congiary (n.) A present, as of corn, wine, or oil, made by a Roman emperor to the soldiers or the people; -- so called because measured to each in a congius.

Cowberry (n.) A species of Vaccinium (V. Vitis-idaea), which bears acid red berries which are sometimes used in cookery; -- locally called mountain cranberry.

Demurely (adv.) In a demure manner; soberly; gravely; -- now, commonly, with a mere show of gravity or modesty.

Desynonymize (v. t.) To deprive of synonymous character; to discriminate in use; -- applied to words which have been employed as synonyms.

Dilatory (a.) Marked by procrastination or delay; tardy; slow; sluggish; -- said of actions or measures.

Dogberry (n.) The berry of the dogwood; -- called also dogcherry.

Elegancy (n.) The state or quality of being elegant; beauty as resulting from choice qualities and the complete absence of what deforms or impresses unpleasantly; grace given by art or practice; fine polish; refinement; -- said of manners, language, style, form, architecture, etc.

Endogamy (n.) Marriage only within the tribe; a custom restricting a man in his choice of a wife to the tribe to which he belongs; -- opposed to exogamy.

Equality (n.) Exact agreement between two expressions or magnitudes with respect to quantity; -- denoted by the symbol =; thus, a = x signifies that a contains the same number and kind of units of measure that x does.

Errantry (n.) The employment of a knight-errant.

Facility (n.) Easiness to be persuaded; readiness or compliance; -- usually in a bad sense; pliancy.

Facility (n.) That which promotes the ease of any action or course of conduct; advantage; aid; assistance; -- usually in the plural; as, special facilities for study.

February (n.) The second month in the year, said to have been introduced into the Roman calendar by Numa. In common years this month contains twenty-eight days; in the bissextile, or leap year, it has twenty-nine days.

Fippenny bit () The Spanish half real, or one sixteenth of a dollar, -- so called in Pennsylvania and the adjacent States.

Fluinity (n.) The quality of being fluid or capable of flowing; a liquid, aeriform. or gaseous state; -- opposed to solidity.

Fosseway (n.) One of the great military roads constructed by the Romans in England and other parts of Europe; -- so called from the fosse or ditch on each side for keeping it dry.

Frippery (n.) Coast-off clothes.

Galloway (n.) A small horse of a breed raised at Galloway, Scotland; -- called also garran, and garron.

Garganey (n.) A small European duck (Anas querquedula); -- called also cricket teal, and summer teal.

Glossohyal (a.) Pertaining to both the hyoidean arch and the tongue; -- applied to the anterior segment of the hyoidean arch in many fishes. -- n. The glossohyal bone or cartilage; lingual bone; entoglossal bone.

Hegemony (n.) Leadership; preponderant influence or authority; -- usually applied to the relation of a government or state to its neighbors or confederates.

Heighten (v. t.) To carry forward; to advance; to increase; to augment; to aggravate; to intensify; to render more conspicuous; -- used of things, good or bad; as, to heighten beauty; to heighten a flavor or a tint.

Heterogynous (a.) Having females very unlike the males in form and structure; -- as certain insects, the males of which are winged, and the females wingless.

Heteronym (n.) That which is heteronymous; a thing having a different name or designation from some other thing; -- opposed to homonym.

Heydeguy (n.) A kind of country-dance or round.

Hommocky (a.) Filled with hommocks; piled in the form of hommocks; -- said of ice.

Homogeny (n.) The correspondence of common descent; -- a term used to supersede homology by Lankester, who also used homoplasy to denote any superinduced correspondence of position and structure in parts embryonically distinct (other writers using the term homoplasmy). Thus, there is homogeny between the fore limb of a mammal and the wing of a bird; but the right and left ventricles of the heart in both are only in homoplasy with each other, these having arisen independently since the divergen> Humanity (n.) The branches of polite or elegant learning; as language, rhetoric, poetry, and the ancient classics; belles-letters.

Humidity (n.) Moisture; dampness; a moderate degree of wetness, which is perceptible to the eye or touch; -- used especially of the atmosphere, or of anything which has absorbed moisture from the atmosphere, as clothing.

Humility (n.) The state or quality of being humble; freedom from pride and arrogance; lowliness of mind; a modest estimate of one's own worth; a sense of one's own unworthiness through imperfection and sinfulness; self-abasement; humbleness.

Hyperoxygenized (a.) Combined with a relatively large amount of oxygen; -- said of higher oxides.

Inapathy (n.) Sensibility; feeling; -- opposed to apathy.

Industry (n.) Habitual diligence in any employment or pursuit, either bodily or mental; steady attention to business; assiduity; -- opposed to sloth and idleness; as, industry pays debts, while idleness or despair will increase them.

Infusory (n.) One of the Infusoria; -- usually in the pl.

Lackaday (interj.) Alack the day; alas; -- an expression of sorrow, regret, dissatisfaction, or surprise.

Langarey (n.) One of numerous species of long-winged, shrikelike birds of Australia and the East Indies, of the genus Artamus, and allied genera; called also wood swallow.

Loblolly (n.) Gruel; porridge; -- so called among seamen.

Maidenly (a.) Like a maid; suiting a maid; maiden-like; gentle, modest, reserved.

Microphyllous (a.) Small-leaved.

Minority (a. & n.) The smaller number; -- opposed to majority; as, the minority must be ruled by the majority.

Monandry (n.) The possession by a woman of only one husband at the same time; -- contrasted with polyandry.

Monogamy (n.) Single marriage; marriage with but one person, husband or wife, at the same time; -- opposed to polygamy. Also, one marriage only during life; -- opposed to deuterogamy.

Mynchery (n.) A nunnery; -- a term still applied to the ruins of certain nunneries in England.

Narrowly (adv.) With a little margin or space; by a small distance; hence, closely; hardly; barely; only just; -- often with reference to an avoided danger or misfortune; as, he narrowly escaped.

Narthex (n.) The portico in front of ancient churches; sometimes, the atrium or outer court surrounded by ambulatories; -- used, generally, for any vestibule, lobby, or outer porch, leading to the nave of a church.

Necropsy (n.) A post-mortem examination or inspection; an autopsy. See Autopsy.

Noctuary (n.) A record of what passes in the night; a nightly journal; -- distinguished from diary.

Aristotype (n.) Orig., a printing-out process using paper coated with silver chloride in gelatin; now, any such process using silver salts in either collodion or gelatin; also, a print so made.

Cahenslyism (n.) A plan proposed to the Pope in 1891 by P. P. Cahensly, a member of the German parliament, to divide the foreign-born population of the United States, for ecclesiastical purposes, according to European nationalities, and to appoint bishops and priests of like race and speaking the same language as the majority of the members of a diocese or congregation. This plan was successfully opposed by the American party in the Church.

Friendly (n.) A friendly person; -- usually applied to natives friendly to foreign settlers or invaders.

Sporophyte (n.) In plants exhibiting alternation of generations, the generation which bears asexual spores; -- opposed to gametophyte. It is not clearly differentiated in the life cycle of the lower plants.

Tiddledywinks (n.) A game in which the object is to snap small disks of bone, ivory, or the like, from a flat surface, as of a table, into a small cup or basket; -- called also tiddlywinks.

Unemployment (n.) Quality or state of being not employed; -- used esp. in economics, of the condition of various social classes when temporarily thrown out of employment, as those engaged for short periods, those whose trade is decaying, and those least competent.

Valorization (n.) Act or process of attempting to give an arbitrary market value or price to a commodity by governmental interference, as by maintaining a purchasing fund, making loans to producers to enable them t Ontogeny (n.) The history of the individual development of an organism; the history of the evolution of the germ; the development of an individual organism, -- in distinction from phylogeny, or evolution of the tribe. Called also henogenesis, henogeny.

Panchway (n.) A Bengalese four-oared boat for passengers.

Pansophy (n.) Universal wisdom; esp., a system of universal knowledge proposed by Comenius (1592 -- 1671), a Moravian educator.

Pentastyle (a.) Having five columns in front; -- said of a temple or portico in classical architecture.

Philauty (n.) Self-love; selfishness.

Pleiophyllous (a.) Having several leaves; -- used especially when several leaves or leaflets appear where normally there should be only one.

Polygamy (n.) The having of a plurality of wives or husbands at the same time; usually, the marriage of a man to more than one woman, or the practice of having several wives, at the same time; -- opposed to monogamy; as, the nations of the East practiced polygamy. See the Note under Bigamy, and cf. Polyandry.

Polygeny (n.) The theory that living organisms originate in cells or embryos of different kinds, instead of coming from a single cell; -- opposed to monogenesis.

Porosity (n.) The quality or state of being porous; -- opposed to density.

Porphyry (n.) A term used somewhat loosely to designate a rock consisting of a fine-grained base (usually feldspathic) through which crystals, as of feldspar or quartz, are disseminated. There are red, purple, and green varieties, which are highly esteemed as marbles.

Praseodymium (n.) An elementary substance, one of the constituents of didymium; -- so called from the green color of its salts. Symbol Ps. Atomic weight 143.6.

Quadrisyllabic () Alt. of Quadri-syllabical

Quartenylic (a.) Pertaining to, or designating, an acid of the acrylic acid series, metameric with crotonic acid, and obtained as a colorless liquid; -- so called from having four carbon atoms in the molecule. Called also isocrotonic acid.

Rascally (a.) Like a rascal; trickish or dishonest; base; worthless; -- often in humorous disparagement, without implication of dishonesty.

Retiracy (n.) Retirement; -- mostly used in a jocose or burlesque way.

Rhapsody (n.) A recitation or song of a rhapsodist; a portion of an epic poem adapted for recitation, or usually recited, at one time; hence, a division of the Iliad or the Odyssey; -- called also a book.

Rhatanhy (n.) The powerfully astringent root of a half-shrubby Peruvian plant (Krameria triandra). It is used in medicine and to color port wine.

Ribaldry (n.) The talk of a ribald; low, vulgar language; indecency; obscenity; lewdness; -- now chiefly applied to indecent language, but formerly, as by Chaucer, also to indecent acts or conduct.

Rigidity (n.) The quality or state of being rigid; want of pliability; the quality of resisting change of form; the amount of resistance with which a body opposes change of form; -- opposed to flexibility, ductility, malleability, and softness.

Rockaway () Formerly, a light, low, four-wheeled carriage, with standing top, open at the sides, but having waterproof curtains which could be let down when occasion required; now, a somewhat similar, but heavier, carriage, inclosed, except in front, and having a door at each side.

Schizomycetes (n. pl.) An order of Schizophyta, including the so-called fission fungi, or bacteria. See Schizophyta, in the Supplement.

Sexenary (a.) Proceeding by sixes; sextuple; -- applied especially to a system of arithmetical computation in which the base is six.

Solidity (n.) The state or quality of being solid; density; consistency, -- opposed to fluidity; compactness; fullness of matter, -- opposed to openness or hollowness; strength; soundness, -- opposed to weakness or instability; the primary quality or affection of matter by which its particles exclude or resist all others; hardness; massiveness.

Solidity (n.) Moral firmness; soundness; strength; validity; truth; certainty; -- as opposed to weakness or fallaciousness; as, the solidity of arguments or reasoning; the solidity of principles, triuths, or opinions.

Squamozygomatic (a.) Of or pertaining to both the squamosal and zygomatic bones; -- applied to a bone, or a center of ossification, in some fetal skulls.

Stereotype (n.) A plate forming an exact faximile of a page of type or of an engraving, used in printing books, etc.; specifically, a plate with type-metal face, used for printing.

Sulphocyanate (n.) A salt of sulphocyanic acid; -- also called thiocyanate, and formerly inaccurately sulphocyanide.

Sulphuryl (n.) The hypothetical radical SO2; -- called also sulphon.

Superroyal (a.) Larger than royal; -- said of a particular size of printing and writing paper. See the Note under Paper, n.

Sympathy (n.) Feeling corresponding to that which another feels; the quality of being affected by the affection of another, with feelings correspondent in kind, if not in degree; fellow-feeling.

Tattlery (n.) Idle talk or chat; tittle-tattle.

Tenacity (n.) That quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force; cohesiveness; the effect of attraction; -- as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.

Tenacity (n.) The greatest longitudinal stress a substance can bear without tearing asunder, -- usually expressed with reference to a unit area of the cross section of the substance, as the number of pounds per square inch, or kilograms per square centimeter, necessary to produce rupture.

Tertiary (a.) Growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial; -- said of quills.

Tetrastyle (a.) Having four columns in front; -- said of a temple, portico, or colonnade.

Thenadays (adv.) At that time; then; in those days; -- correlative to nowadays.

Thermosystaltic (a.) Influenced in its contraction by heat or cold; -- said of a muscle.

Travesty (a.) Disguised by dress so as to be ridiculous; travestied; -- applied to a book or shorter composition.

Unchancy (a.) Ill-fated; unlucky.

Uncomely (a.) Not comely. -- adv. In an uncomely manner.

Underlay (v. i.) To incUnderlay (n.) The inclination of a vein, fault, or lode from the vertical; a hade; -- called also underlie.

Unworthy (a.) Not worthy; wanting merit, value, or fitness; undeserving; worthless; unbecoming; -- often with of.

Waxberry (n.) The wax-covered fruit of the wax myrtle, or bayberry. See Bayberry, and Candleberry tree.

Xiphophyllous (a.) Having sword-shaped leaves.

About the author

Mark McCracken Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".

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