yield

American  

[yeeld] / jild /

verb (used with object)

• yields,
  present (3rd person singular)
• yielded,
  past participle,  past
• yielding
  present participle

1. to give forth or produce by a natural process or in return for cultivation.

   This farm yields enough fruit to meet all our needs.

   Synonyms:

   bear, render, supply, furnish

2. to produce or furnish (payment, profit, or interest).

   a trust fund that yields ten percent interest annually; That investment will yield a handsome return.

3. to give up, as to superior power or authority.

   They yielded the fort to the enemy.

   Synonyms:

   forgo, waive, abdicate, abandon

4. to give up or surrender (oneself ).

   He yielded himself to temptation.

   Antonyms:

   resist

5. to give up or over; relinquish or resign.

   to yield the floor to the senator from Ohio.

6. to give as due or required.

   to yield obedience to one's teachers.

   Synonyms:

   render

7. to cause; give rise to.

   The play yielded only one good laugh.

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verb (used without object)

• yields,
  present (3rd person singular)
• yielded,
  past participle,  past
• yielding
  present participle

1. to give a return, as for labor expended; produce; bear.

2. to surrender or submit, as to superior power.

   The rebels yielded after a week.

3. to give way to influence, entreaty, argument, or the like.

   Don't yield to their outrageous demands.

   Synonyms:

   bow, comply, give in

4. to give place or precedence (usually followed byto ).

   to yield to another; Will the senator from New York yield?

5. to give way to force, pressure, etc., so as to move, bend, collapse, or the like.

   I've pushed and pushed, but this door will not yield.

noun

• yields
  plural

1. something yielded.

   Synonyms:

   fruit

2. the quantity or amount yielded.

3. the act or process of yielding.

   the yield of plastic materials under stress.

4. Chemistry. the quantity of product formed by the interaction of two or more substances, generally expressed as a percentage of the quantity obtained to that theoretically obtainable.

5. the income produced by a financial investment, usually shown as a percentage of cost.

6. a measure of the destructive energy of a nuclear explosion, expressed in kilotons of the amount of TNT that would produce the same destruction.

yield British  

/ jiːld /

verb

1. to give forth or supply (a product, result, etc), esp by cultivation, labour, etc; produce or bear

2. (tr) to furnish as a return

   the shares yielded three per cent

3. to surrender or relinquish, esp as a result of force, persuasion, etc

4. to give way, submit, or surrender, as through force or persuasion

   she yielded to his superior knowledge

5. to agree; comply; assent

   he eventually yielded to their request for money

6. (tr) to grant or allow; concede

   to yield right of way

7. obsolete (tr) to pay or repay

   God yield thee!

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noun

1. the result, product, or amount yielded

2. the profit or return, as from an investment or tax

3. the annual income provided by an investment, usually expressed as a percentage of its cost or of its current value

   the yield on these shares is 15 per cent at today's market value

4. the energy released by the explosion of a nuclear weapon expressed in terms of the amount of TNT necessary to produce the same energy

5. chem the quantity of a specified product obtained in a reaction or series of reactions, usually expressed as a percentage of the quantity that is theoretically obtainable

yield Cultural  

1. The income from a fixed-income security as a percentage of its market price. For example, if the market price of a bond declines, its yield rises.

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Synonym Usage

Yield, submit, surrender mean to give way or give up to someone or something. To yield is to concede under some degree of pressure, but not necessarily to surrender totally: to yield ground to an enemy. To submit is to give up more completely to authority, superior force, etc., and to cease opposition, although usually with reluctance: to submit to control. To surrender is to give up complete possession of, relinquish, and cease claim to: to surrender a fortress, one's freedom, rights. See crop.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underyield
  noun
• yielder
  noun
• outyield
  verb (used with object)
• underyield
  verb (used without object)
• unyielded
  adjective
• yieldable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• yields
  plural

Participles

• yielding
  present
• yielded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• yield
  simple
• yields
  simple
• have yielded
  perfect
• has yielded
  perfect
• am yielding
  progressive
• are yielding
  progressive
• is yielding
  progressive
• have been yielding
  perfect progressive
• has been yielding
  perfect progressive

Past

• yielded
  simple
• had yielded
  perfect
• was yielding
  progressive
• were yielding
  progressive
• had been yielding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will yield
  simple
• will have yielded
  perfect
• will be yielding
  progressive
• will have been yielding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of yield

First recorded before 900; (for the verb) Middle English y(i)elden, Old English g(i)eldan “to pay”; cognate with German gelten “to be worth, apply to”; noun derivative of the verb

Explanation

Yield has two meanings that seem quite different: "an amount" or "to give way." The yield of the recipe was twelve brownies. To avoid being tripped, Mary was forced to yield to the children on her way to the brownie plate. While these meanings seem quite different, they both essentially mean "to give." The recipe gives twelve brownies to those who follow it, and Mary is giving up her right to go first. Yield can also mean the rate of return on an investment. A bond yields an interest rate of 2%, or gives an investor $2.00 for every $100 invested.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yield yields yielded yielding

"The problem we're going to have this year is a massive reduction in yield and major quality issues," O'Malley said.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Its dividend forecast drops to 60.6 Australian cents a share in FY 2027—from nearly A$1.13/share in FY 2026—implying a 3.3% yield at a 65% payout.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Tungsten and cobalt are costly raw materials, and conventional production can use a large amount of material while delivering a relatively limited yield.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

Today’s ride would yield eight new miles for Papas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

They wouldn’t yield much, but sometimes Osh painted a single yellow flower in a pale green marsh, and it was all the better for being just one.

From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk

Treasury yields extended Tuesday’s decline as oil prices retreat further.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

Because Japanese institutions are the world’s largest cross-border creditors, rising yields at home weaken the case for owning foreign debt and give capital parked in U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo, said the lack of clarity about how to lower inflation pushed yields higher “because there is now a risk that it may take longer or involve a policy mistake.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

Any single run of the experiment gives only a very rough indication of whether the photon dwelt in the atoms, but averaging millions of runs yields an accurate dwell time.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

The only way to get the higher yields was to buy seed from seed companies.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Together, the changes yielded a larger transformation than they imagined.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

Panama officials said that talks have yielded initial results, including a significant decrease in the number of Panamanian vessels detained for inspection in Chinese ports during July.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Within days, he yielded to perhaps the most significant of the protesters’ demands, firing the country’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, who was widely criticized for sticking to old-school Soviet ways and hampering change.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Samples from separate parts of the figure yielded three different ranges.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

The storeroom yielded nothing more except the tantalizing fragrance from boxes and kegs all sealed and forbidden him.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Both of these are yielding around 6.5%, according to FactSet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

The podcast had been downloaded 7,184 times by the end of July, according to APD - yielding several tips, including one which investigators continue to pursue.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

With short-term Treasurys and money funds yielding roughly 4%, waiting in the short end of the market is a paid position rather than money left on the table.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Following Fedorov's accusations, Syrsky, who led Kyiv's defence in the crucial first months of the 2022 invasion, called for a focus on "the war and on an effective strategy that is currently yielding concrete results".

From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026

The turf was deep and yielding, and that helped them; but it seemed a long slow business.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Related Words

• crop
• earnings
• harvest
• income
• output
• profit
• return
• revenue
• turnout