Yahoo!
//ˈjɑːhuː// name
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Proper Noun
- 1 A web portal and search engine located at yahoo.com. Internet
Etymology
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the name itself is an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”, incorporated in 1995. However, other sources claim the main inspiration by founders Jerry Yang and David Filo originates from Yahoo, the race of barbaric beings from the Jonathan Swift novel Gulliver's Travels (perhaps with a semantic notion of strongly exploring the then-"wild" late 90s Internet), thence the acronym apparently being a backronym. Also compare Etymology 2 of yahoo; the exclamation point was supposedly added to "strengthen" the trademark.
Related phrases
More for "yahoo!"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.