yellow
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
The bright color of lemons and sunshine.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
yehlohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈjɛloʊ
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
The bright color of lemons and sunshine.
The color of sunflower petals and lemons; the color obtained by mixing green and red light, or by subtracting blue from white light; the color evoked by light of wavelength around 580 nm; one of the three primary colors in subtractive color systems.
us
The middle light in a set of three traffic lights, the lighting of which indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection if it is safe to do so.
verb
Turn yellow
“The pages of the book began to yellow.”
intransitive
To become yellow or yellower.
adjective
informal
Lacking courage.
Of a yellow hue.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: the bright color of lemons and sunshine.
Used this way, yellow 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 yellow
- “The pages of the book began to yellow.”verb
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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 humor that was once believed to be secreted by the liver and to cause irritability and anger.
North American freshwater bass resembling the larger marine striped bass.
Tree of eastern North America with thin lustrous yellow or grey bark.
Fruit of various buckthorns yielding dyes or pigments.
Viscid herb of arid or desert habitats of southwestern United States having pendulous yellow flowers.
Bog plant of pine barrens of southeastern United States having spikes of irregular yellow-orange flowers.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Any of various angiospermous trees having yellow wood.
Small handsome roundheaded deciduous tree having showy white flowers in terminal clusters and heavy hardwood yielding yellow dye.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.