Evan's correct.
When people talk about the "X year yield" they mean the yield for a government security issued now.
There's two main terms. When they talk about government securities they're most often referring to the "Yield to Maturity", which is the Net Present Value (google the term if you don't know) of a bond with that level of maturity trading today. This is NOT just a calculation of the interest rate it pays, it's a measure of the total time-adjusted return of your purchase price (cash outlay or the "present value"), interest payments in (the "payment" part of the equation) and the "face value" or "principal" which is the amount of cash that you're supposed to get when it matures (or "future value").
Overview of the terminology here: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/in...yields.asp
That website is a good one-stop shop for your questions about finance terminology and concepts.
When people talk about the "X year yield" they mean the yield for a government security issued now.
There's two main terms. When they talk about government securities they're most often referring to the "Yield to Maturity", which is the Net Present Value (google the term if you don't know) of a bond with that level of maturity trading today. This is NOT just a calculation of the interest rate it pays, it's a measure of the total time-adjusted return of your purchase price (cash outlay or the "present value"), interest payments in (the "payment" part of the equation) and the "face value" or "principal" which is the amount of cash that you're supposed to get when it matures (or "future value").
Overview of the terminology here: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/in...yields.asp
That website is a good one-stop shop for your questions about finance terminology and concepts.