Yllyttää

yllyttää is a Finnish transitive verb meaning "to incite", "to urge on" or "to instigate". It denotes persuading or encouraging someone to take an action, often with a connotation of prompting behavior that is questionable, risky or wrongful. Typical constructions include yllyttää + henkilö + tekemään (to incite someone to do something) and the noun form yllyttäminen (incitement).

In everyday use yllyttää can describe both mild urging and more serious provocation: for example, "Hän yllytti ystävänsä kokeilemaan" (He urged his friend to try it) or "Hänet syytettiin rikokseen yllyttämisestä" (He was accused of incitement to a crime). Synonyms in Finnish may include kannustaa (encourage) when the nuance is neutral or positive; antonyms include estää (prevent) and pidättäytyä (refrain).

In legal and formal contexts yllyttäminen is treated as a distinct concept, especially when the incitement concerns criminal activity. Finnish criminal law and case law address when encouragement or direction reaches the threshold of punishable incitement. The term appears across media, literature and legal texts and carries variable moral weight depending on context, from casual teasing to culpable provocation.