Meaning & use
the Yukon
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Meanings
proper nounproperCanadian
A large, thinly populated territory in the far northwest of Canada, next to Alaska, known for mountains, wilderness and the gold rush of the 1890s.
Grammar: Takes the in everyday speech: we flew to the Yukon, not we flew to Yukon.
Patterns
- in the Yukon
- travel to the Yukon
- from the Yukon
They spent the summer hiking in the Yukon.
Whitehorse is the largest city in the Yukon.
Thousands of prospectors headed to the Yukon during the gold rush.
proper nounproper
The long river that rises in Canada and flows across Alaska to the Bering Sea.
Grammar: Often written the Yukon River; the short form is common in stories about travel and gold.
Patterns
- along the Yukon
- down the Yukon
Early travelers floated down the Yukon on rafts.
The ice on the Yukon usually breaks up in May.
Salmon swim up the Yukon every summer.
Common combinations
- the Yukon gold rush
- The Yukon gold rush began in 1896.
- the Yukon River
- We paddled a canoe on the Yukon River.
- Yukon Territory
- Yukon Territory has fewer than fifty thousand residents.
- the Yukon wilderness
- She wrote a book about living alone in the Yukon wilderness.
- in the Yukon
- Winters in the Yukon can be extremely cold.
Word family
- Yukoner noun
- a person who lives in the Yukon
- Yukon adjective
- used before a noun, as in Yukon gold potatoes
Commonly confused: the Yukon or Yukon Gold?
the Yukon vs Yukon Gold
Yukon Gold is a type of yellow potato named after the region, not the place itself.
Practice
Complete the sentence: The old miners remembered the gold rush in ___.
Choose one answer.
The place name normally takes the in speech, so the Yukon is natural. A Yukon and Yukons treat it as a common countable noun, which it is not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “the Yukon”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.