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• silver
  silver

  noun

  a white, ductile metallic element, used for making mirrors, coins, ornaments, table utensils, photographic chemicals, conductors, etc. Ag; 107.870; 47; 10.5 at 20°C.
• Silver
  Silver

  noun

  Abba Hillel 1893–1963, U.S. rabbi, born in Lithuania.

silver

¹ American  

[sil-ver] / ˈsɪl vər /

noun

1. Chemistry. a white, ductile metallic element, used for making mirrors, coins, ornaments, table utensils, photographic chemicals, conductors, etc. Ag; 107.870; 47; 10.5 at 20°C.

2. coin made of this metal; specie; money.

   a handful of silver.

3. this metal as a commodity or considered as a currency standard.

4. table articles made of or plated with silver, including flatware and hollowware.

5. any flatware.

   The kitchen silver is of stainless steel.

6. something resembling this metal in color, luster, etc.

7. a lustrous grayish white or whitish gray, or the color of the metal.

   the silver of the leaves.

8. any of the silver halides used for photographic purposes, as silver bromide, silver chloride, or silver iodide.

9. silver medal.

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adjective

1. consisting of, made of, or plated with silver.

2. of or relating to silver.

3. producing or yielding silver.

4. resembling silver; silvery.

   the silver moon.

5. clear and soft.

   silver sounds.

6. eloquent; persuasive.

   a silver tongue.

7. urging the use of silver as a currency standard.

   silver economists.

8. indicating the twenty-fifth event of a series, as a wedding anniversary.

9. having the color silver.

   a silver dress.

verb (used with object)

• silvers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• silvered,
  past participle,  past
• silvering
  present participle

1. to coat with silver or some silverlike substance.

2. to give a silvery color to.

verb (used without object)

• silvers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• silvered,
  past participle,  past
• silvering
  present participle

1. to become a silvery color.

Silver ² American  

[sil-ver] / ˈsɪl vər /

noun

1. Abba Hillel 1893–1963, U.S. rabbi, born in Lithuania.

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silver British  

/ ˈsɪlvə /

noun

1. 1. a very ductile malleable brilliant greyish-white element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal. It occurs free and in argentite and other ores: used in jewellery, tableware, coinage, electrical contacts, and in electroplating. Its compounds are used in photography. Symbol: Ag; atomic no: 47; atomic wt: 107.8682; valency: 1 or 2; relative density: 10.50; melting pt: 961.93°C; boiling pt: 2163°C

   2. ( as modifier )

      a silver coin

2. coin made of, or having the appearance of, this metal

3. cutlery, whether made of silver or not

4. any household articles made of silver

5. photog any of a number of silver compounds used either as photosensitive substances in emulsions or as sensitizers

6. 1. a brilliant or light greyish-white colour

   2. ( as adjective )

      silver hair

7. short for silver medal

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adjective

1. well-articulated

   silver speech

2. (prenominal) denoting the 25th in a series, esp an annual series

   a silver wedding anniversary

verb

1. (tr) to coat with silver or a silvery substance

   to silver a spoon

2. to become or cause to become silvery in colour

3. to become or cause to become elderly

silver Scientific  

/ sĭl′vər /

1. A soft, shiny, white metallic element that is found in many ores, especially together with copper, lead, and zinc. It conducts heat and electricity better than any other metal. Silver is used in photography and in making electrical circuits and conductors. Atomic number 47; atomic weight 107.868; melting point 960.8°C; boiling point 2,212°C; specific gravity 10.50; valence 1, 2.

2. See also sterling silver See Periodic Table See Note at element

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silver Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing silver

• born with a silver spoon
• cross someone's palm with silver
• hand to on a silver platter

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonsilver
  noun
• silverer
  noun
• silvering
  noun
• silverness
  noun
• resilver
  verb (used with object)
• silverish
  adjective
• silverless
  adjective
• silverlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• silvering
  present
• silvered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• silver
  simple
• silvers
  simple
• have silvered
  perfect
• has silvered
  perfect
• am silvering
  progressive
• are silvering
  progressive
• is silvering
  progressive
• have been silvering
  perfect progressive
• has been silvering
  perfect progressive

Past

• silvered
  simple
• had silvered
  perfect
• was silvering
  progressive
• were silvering
  progressive
• had been silvering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will silver
  simple
• will have silvered
  perfect
• will be silvering
  progressive
• will have been silvering
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of silver

First recorded before 900; Middle English (noun and adjective) silver(e), selver(e), selfer, Old English siolfor (originally a noun); cognate with German Silber, Old Norse silfr, Gothic silubr, akin to Serbo-Croatian srèbro, Russian serebró, Lithuanian sidãbras

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Explanation

The shiny precious metal that's used for jewelry, spoons and forks, and fancy candlesticks is silver. You can also use the word silver to describe things that are the same color as silver. There are silver bracelets and silver coins, but also silver hair and a silver sky. The element known to scientists as Ag, or silver, is rare and valuable, and was once used to make money. Today many coins are silver in color, but they're usually made of nickel and copper. If you believe that every terrible event has a hopeful or encouraging aspect to it, you might say, "Every cloud has a silver lining."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

silver Silver silvers silvered silvering

Alongside roads and across facades, skinny silver heating pipes snake through the town.

From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2026

It is hard to imagine the guitar legend without his trademark black shirt, large silver cross, blue-tinted glasses and leather coat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2026

In areas that had escaped the worst damage, testing identified an underlying silver and copper alloy.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2026

She won gold in the 200m breaststroke and 100m silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, before adding 100m gold and 200m silver in 2024.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2026

A woman official spoke a few words and gave me the two thousand silver dollars I had won for being the first musher to reach Iditarod.

From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell

From WeHo to Venice to a drastically gentrified Silver Lake.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2026

Garrett turned his Silver Lake storefront into an archive of vintage frames, some of them especially notable — like the Oliver Peoples 523 frames, a style worn by Brad Pitt in the film “Fight Club.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2026

Silver for December delivery rises 1.5% in New York to $52.005 a troy ounce.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2026

The subsidiary, called Silver Bands 7, is entitled to rebates of up to $2.1 billion over the next 10 years on future equipment purchases, but SoftBank said those have yet to be determined.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026

One had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and one the Silver Star, both high honors.

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge

The Swiss star, who has also won two world silvers and a bronze in the discipline, was the form rider going into the championships.

From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026

Every now and then, Apple sets aside its palette of austere silvers and grays, using both color and lower price points to appeal to a broader, mostly younger, audience.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026

China's global superstar Eileen Gu won gold, her first of these Games after two silvers, with 94.75, while compatriot Li Fanghui took silver.

From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2026

But Gu, who now has three Olympic golds and three silvers in total, produced a dazzling performance in the second round to wow the judges.

From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026

It was a line: a curved line, like a loosely scribbled letter C, and it was sparkling and flickering in a zigzag pattern of blacks and whites and silvers.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman

A little silvered glass could be worth its weight in gold.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

At 50, still in the blush of youth by today’s silvered political standards, Porter has plenty of highway ahead of her.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2024

Ms Quinn said: "Daguerre developed a way of taking pictures using a polished silvered plate and a camera. This produced a single image printed directly onto a plate with astonishing clarity, named the daguerreotype."

From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2024

Seventeen years after the Tripod fire, the silvered trunks of dead trees still stand on many slopes.

From Seattle Times ● May 12, 2023

Moonlight silvered the cruel edges of the spikes that lined its bed.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

It may have been 44 years ago, but how does a Milwaukeean of a certain, silvering age not remember the last time the Brewers were in the World Series?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

Bonlie, a middle-aged man with silvering hair and a cheerful manner, listened attentively as she went through her long list of symptoms and her account of two decades of intermittent misery.

From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2022

Screen Goo is highly pigmented and has a little silvering in the paint that reflects light back at lots of different angles.

From The Verge ● Feb. 24, 2020

A thickset Catholic businessman with silvering hair and bloodshot eyes, he was wearing a loose denim shirt.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 4, 2016

They looked out over the pool with the afternoon sky silvering its surface.

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

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Related Words

• bright
• silvery
• white

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