yellow

Various shades of yellow

Meanings

Adjective

Noun

  • The colour of gold, cheese, or a lemon; the colour obtained by mixing green and red light, or by subtracting blue from white light.
  • The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, the illumination of which indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection if it is safe to do so.
  • One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of 2 points.
  • One of two groups of object balls, or a ball from that group, as used in the principally British version of pool that makes use of unnumbered balls (the (yellow(s) and red(s)); contrast stripes and solids in the originally American version with numbered balls).
  • A yellow card.
  • Any of various pierid butterflies of the subfamily Coliadinae, especially the yellow coloured species. Compare sulphur.

Verb

  • To become yellow or more yellow.
  • To make (something) yellow or more yellow.

Related

Similar words

Opposite words

Narrower meaning words

Origin

  • From Middle English yelow, from Old English ġeolwe, oblique form of of Old English ġeolu, from Proto-West Germanic *gelu, from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃wos, from *ǵʰelh₃-
  • Compare Welsh gwelw ("pale"), Latin helvus ("dull yellow"), Irish geal ("white, bright"), Lithuanian žalias ("green"), Ancient Greek χλωρός ("light green"), Persian زرد ("yellow"), Sanskrit हरि ("greenish-yellow"). Cognate with German gelb ("yellow"), Dutch geel ("yellow").
  • The verb is from Old English ġeolwian, from the adjective.

Modern English dictionary

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