olive
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A muted yellow-green color.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ahluhvSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɑləv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A muted yellow-green color.
The small oval fruit of this tree, eaten ripe (usually black) or unripe (usually green).
Evergreen tree cultivated in the Mediterranean region since antiquity and now elsewhere; has edible shiny black fruits
Small ovoid fruit of the European olive tree; important food and source of oil
Hard yellow often variegated wood of an olive tree; used in cabinetwork
One-seeded fruit of the European olive tree usually pickled and used as a relish
adjective
Of a grayish green color, that of an unripe olive.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: a muted yellow-green color.
Used this way, olive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use olive
- “We bought a delicious jar of black olive tapenade for the bread.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A shade of brown tinged with green.
A dull greyish to yellowish or light olive brown.
Military uniform of the United States Army.
Trees and shrubs having berries or drupes or capsules as fruits.
A color that is lighter and greener than olive.
Oil from olives.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.