a pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle, and capable of gaining a negative electrical charge by friction and of being an excellent insulator: used for making jewelry and other ornamental articles.
the yellowish-brown color of resin.
of the color of amber; yellowish-brown.
amber fields of grain.
made of amber.
amber earrings.
a yellow or yellowish-brown hard translucent fossil resin derived from extinct coniferous trees that occurs in Tertiary deposits and often contains trapped insects. It is used for jewellery, ornaments, etc
( as modifier )
an amber necklace
a strange relic or reminder of the past
a medium to dark brownish-yellow colour, often somewhat orange, similar to that of the resin
( as adjective )
an amber dress
an amber traffic light used as a warning between red and green
Certain trees, especially conifers, produce a sticky substance called resin to protect themselves against insects. Normally, it decays in oxygen through the action of bacteria. However, if the resin happens to fall into wet mud or sand containing little oxygen, it can harden and eventually fossilize, becoming the yellowish, translucent substance known as amber. If any insects or other organisms are trapped in the resin before it hardens, they can be preserved, often in exquisite detail. By studying these preserved organisms, scientists are able learn key facts about life on Earth millions of years ago.
1350–1400; Middle English ambre < Old French < Medieval Latin ambra < Arabic ʿanbar ambergris; confusion of the dissimilar substances perhaps because both were rare, valuable, and found on seacoasts
Amber is a brownish yellow color. Many cats have green eyes but those with amber eyes are likely to have yellow or white fur. Amber is also a translucent golden or honeyed-yellow colored gemstone, often used to make jewelry. That's where the color amber gets its name. Amber comes from the ocean floor — most of it is harvested from the Baltic Sea off the coast of Russia. The most likely origin of amber is the Latin word for "bitter," amarus, as the color yellow was often associated with bitterness and envy.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Think about drinks produced in Ireland and you'd probably picture a creamy pint of stout or a tumbler of amber whiskey.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Its red-white-and-blue website shows the Statue of Liberty and a person wearing a cowboy hat striding with a partner through amber waves of grain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
It has put in place an amber health warning for four regions, including London, warning of increased risk to those over 65 years old or with pre-existing health conditions.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
It says it expects only two - Reggio Calabria in the southern tip of Italy's "boot" and Messina, facing it across on the island of Sicily - to be on the second-highest "amber" alert.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
They weren’t solid gray, but filaments of a hundred different grays and blues and pearls, and they looked like reflections of light wavering on water, with the softest sunburst of amber haloing his pupils.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Among the 21 newlyweds that year were Amber Carroll Tyrell and Josh Mayer, who had been looking at a wedding costing upward of $50,000 when they saw the $350 price tag at Outside Lands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Amber heat-health alerts come into force across most of England on Tuesday as temperatures start to climb again at the start of the summer's latest predicted heatwave.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Amber heat health alerts have been issued for much of eastern England.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The production reunites the original Broadway cast — André De Shields, Patrick Page, Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada and Amber Gray — six years after the show debuted and swept the Tonys in 2019.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
"Ivy, please. Tell me where Amber is? Is she at the Chrysanthemum Teahouse now? What happened?"
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
I would swim early in the morning when the water was still or late at night as the sun set, casting stunning ambers and pinks streaks through the sky.
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2025
The sunrise ambers and midnight blues of Joshua Cutts’s lighting design illuminate Michael’s states of mind as much as they do time and place.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
The set design by Clint Ramos and Miguel Urbino emphasizes depth of field, its white framework a receptive canvas for Linda Cho’s refined midcentury costumes and the warm ambers of David Weiner’s lighting.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
By and by the moon rose out of the pearl-greys and ambers in the east, bevies of black rooks flew homeward, and stillness settled over the face of the brown lake.
From Penelope's Irish Experiences by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
Brown hair, warm brown skin, brown eyes, may wear browns, yellows, ambers, cream-white, rich blues, tans, fawns, all reds, olive-green and maroon; flame-color, and rose pink in small quantities.
From Social Life or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society by Maud C. Cooke
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.
