teal
Americannoun
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any of several species of small dabbling ducks, of worldwide distribution, usually traveling in tight flocks and frequenting ponds and marshes.
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Also called teal blue. a medium to dark greenish blue.
noun
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any of various small ducks, such as the Eurasian Anas crecca ( common teal ) that are related to the mallard and frequent ponds, lakes, and marshes
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a greenish-blue colour
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of teal
1275–1325; Middle English tele; akin to Dutch taling, Middle Low German telink
Compare meaning
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Explanation
Teal things are colored a deep shade of blue-green, like the sparkling teal water in a tropical lagoon. The color gets its name from a kind of duck, also called a teal. The common teal is a migratory water bird, a duck with a teal stripe on its head and wings. The origin of the word is unclear, but we know the bird came first and then the color—the green-blue teal was first used in print in a 1923 clothing advertisement. It was added as an official color to the Plochere Color System, an interior design reference, in 1948, and became a Crayola crayon color in 1990.
Vocabulary lists containing teal
Blue
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Non-Color Words to Use When Describing Color
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Green
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Opportunities exist outside of large cap technology including regional/mid-sized banks and quality small cap companies,” Teal said.
From Barron's • Jan. 20, 2026
“The economy is demonstrating a goldilocks scenario,” Teal said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
Strong growth and declining but elevated inflation looks like a good recipe for stocks, said Comerica Wealth Management chief investment officer Eric Teal.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
Thursday's jobs report did little to offer clarity on the Fed's upcoming decisions about interest rates, said Eric Teal, chief investment officer at Comerica Bank.
From BBC • Nov. 20, 2025
“Oh! I remember this. Your father and I bought our very first car. A Pontiac Tempest, Teal Turquoise. I never did learn how to drive it.”
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
