Meanings
yana1
plural yanas
- BuddhismAny of the vehicles of Buddhist or Tantric practice.
The Tibetan word for yana is thekpa, which means "that which lifts you up." Anything that lifts you up and takes you to your destination is a yana.
2013, Chögyam Trungpa, chapter 1, in Judith L. Lief, editor, The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion, volume 2
Yana2
- A female given name from the Slavic languages. A romanization of the Bulgarian or Russian or Ukrainian name Я́на (Jána).
- A river in Sakha (Yakutia), Russia that rises near Verkhoyansk and flows into the Yana Bay of the Laptev Sea.
Yana3
plural Yanas
- A member of a North American Indian people who once resided in the eastern portion of the upper Sacramento River valley in California.
- The now extinct language of the Yana people, best known for a systematic differentiation between men's and women's speech.
Synonyms: Yanan
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounThe now extinct language of the Yana people, best known for a systematic differentiation between men's and women's speech.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Yana · proper noun
Cognate to English Jane, ultimately from Hebrew, feminine form of Ioannes ( =John).
Full word history & related roots →Yana · noun, proper noun
- ynnyana“person, people”
- EnglishYana
From Yana yana (“person, people”).
More words from ynn
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 乘
- 乘 (shèng)any of the three vehicles of Buddhist practice
French yâna
- yânaany of the three vehicles of Buddhist practice
Vietnamese thừa
- thừaany of the three vehicles of Buddhist practice
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with yana
Anagrams
Cite this entry
yana. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yana
“yana.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yana. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “yana,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yana.
Source: yana on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.