noun

yellow

YEH-loh

noun

The bright color of lemons, sunflowers, and egg yolks, produced by light around 580 nanometers.

"She painted the kitchen walls a cheerful yellow."

"The traffic light turned yellow just as we approached the intersection."

adj

Having the color yellow.

"He wore a bright yellow raincoat."

Informal: cowardly, lacking courage.

"Don't be yellow — just ask her out already."

verb

To turn yellow, or to cause something to turn yellow, often through age.

"The old newspaper clippings had yellowed with age."

How to Use Yellow

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishThe color between green and orange on the color wheel; also slang for cowardly.

Common mistake

Calling someone "yellow" to mean cowardly is old-fashioned slang — it can sound dated or, in some contexts involving ethnicity, offensive; use with care.

Common pairings

turn yellow yellow card yellow light

Word Forms

yellower comparative, yellowed past tense, yellows plural, yellows singular, yellowest superlative

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Fill the Gap

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She painted the kitchen walls a cheerful _____.

Etymology

From Old English geolu, going back to a very old root shared across the Germanic and even wider Indo-European languages meaning "yellow" or "green".

Synonyms

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xantho- blond cream dandelion gold khaki lemon

Related Words

orange money gold cream khaki lemon blond ejaculate

Rhymes for yellow

fellow mellow bellow Longfellow Goodfellow

See all rhymes for yellow →

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