yaas

What it means

Plain "yes" confirms information. Yaas adds excitement on top of the agreement, close to "yes, and I love it", so it fits best after something someone has done or shown: a new haircut, a bold outfit, a finished application, a decision to go for it. Dictionary.com defines it as slang for "yes" used as a strong expression of excitement, approval or agreement, and Know Your Meme describes it as an excited affirmative, especially in response to someone's style or appearance. If someone comments "yaas" or "yas queen" on your photo or message, it is a big, warm compliment. The spelling carries the volume. A short "yas" is a quick nod of approval, "yaaas" and "yasss" turn it up, and a long "YAAAAASSSS" in capitals is maximum excitement, often with a playful wink. There is no rule for how many a's or s's to type, and JSTOR Daily describes the stretched spellings as eye dialect, words written the way a speech group might say them to carry an emotion that formal spelling cannot. Said to someone, "yas queen" works as encouragement, roughly "you look great" or "go for it". Said about someone, the tone depends more on the situation: it can be real admiration, friendly commentary or an ironic imitation of internet and drag-culture speech, and that last version can read as mockery. Yaas is informal. It suits texts, comments and chats with friends, and it sounds performative or playful in formal workplace writing, school assignments or official documents. The base form "yas" is still current online, especially as playful praise and in queer and drag spaces. The heavily stretched "YAAAAASSSS QUEEN" is strongly tied to the mid-2010s and can sound ironic or dated now, so read the rest of the message to tell whether a sender in 2026 is joking.

See the quick definition in the yaas dictionary entry.

How to use it

• “yaasss that color is so good on you”

  A reply under a friend's photo in a new jacket. Pure compliment.

• “yas!! proud of you”

  Cheering a friend who just sent in an application.

• “yas queen do it”

  Encouragement to a friend trying a bold look. The sender is cheering, with no sarcasm.

• “YAAAAASSSS”

  Maximum volume, often with a meme-style wink. Read the surrounding message to tell sincere from ironic.

Where it came from

The modern slang sense is associated with Black and Latino LGBTQ ballroom culture in New York, especially the 1980s. Te Papa's history of ballroom describes the houses that grew across Harlem and Brooklyn through the 1970s and 80s as chosen families for queer youth, and cheering and affirming a performer is part of how that scene works. Bustle's Alexis Rhiannon wrote on June 19, 2015 that the phrase "started out as a term of encouragement in 1980s Ball Culture".

Public documentation of that world reaches back to 1990. The Criterion press notes for Paris Is Burning describe Jennie Livingston's documentary, made over seven years and released in 1990, as a portrait of New York's African American and Latinx Harlem drag ball scene. The film shows the culture the expression is associated with, and 1990 marks documentation of that culture rather than a first use of the word. No single coiner is documented, and no exact first use is firmly dated. The word grew within ballroom and queer performance communities, and Crystal LaBeija, who is tied to the first ballroom house still running today, is not documented as its coiner.

Its online life came later. Know Your Meme says the elongated "YAAAASSS" came to prominence after a YouTube video posted on August 21, 2013 of a fan screaming at Lady Gaga, and that spellings then spread through GIFs and image macros. Bustle names Broad City as one of the shows that made the phrase familiar to a wider audience and states that its creators did not coin it. The stretched spelling is a respelling of "yes" that adds letters for a lengthened, excited sound. Dictionary.com records an older spelling of "yes" for a US regional pronunciation from 1890 to 1895, which is a separate matter from the ballroom slang. Its roots in ballroom are decades older than its internet life.

Where it's popular

Social media comments, memes, GIF captions, fan communities, queer communities and drag-related spaces. Many people also know it from RuPaul's Drag Race and Broad City.

Use is much wider than the original ballroom community, but the word keeps a clear link to queer and drag culture.

How it caught on

1. 1890 to 1895Dictionary.com records the earliest use of a similar spelling to represent a US regional pronunciation of "yes", a separate matter from the ballroom slang.
2. 1970s and 1980sTe Papa says ballroom houses spread across Harlem and Brooklyn; the slang sense is associated with 1980s New York ballroom.
3. 1990Paris Is Burning, Jennie Livingston's documentary of the Harlem ball scene, is released.
4. August 21, 2013A YouTube video of a fan screaming at Lady Gaga is posted, and Know Your Meme says it brought the elongated "YAAAASSS" to prominence.
5. June 19, 2015Bustle's Alexis Rhiannon traces "yas queen" to 1980s ball culture and notes Broad City did not coin it.
6. March 16, 2016The Los Angeles Times reports Broad City using "yas, yas, yas" in connection with Hillary Clinton.

Test yourself

Related slang

More word guides

• aced it
• tuff
• slay
• serving
• ate and left no crumbs
• slept on

Questions people ask

• https://www.dictionary.com/browse/yaaas
• https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/yaass
• https://www.bustle.com/articles/91565-where-did-yas-queen-come-from-and-why-is-it-taking-over-pop-culture
• https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/digital-museum/explore-digital-museum/lgbtqi-histories-aotearoa-new-zealand/origins-of-ballroom
• https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/307-/Paris-is-Burning_press-notes_r_original.pdf
• https://daily.jstor.org/yas-queen-its-the-spelling-reform-school-for-wayward-words/
• https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-broad-city-hillary-clinton-20160316-story.html