gold star

noun

1. a gold-colored star displayed, as on a service flag, to indicate that a member of one's family, organization, or the like, was killed in war as a member of the armed forces.

2. Informal.

   1. symbolic approval or recognition for outstanding merit or effort.

      You get the gold star for cooking such a gourmet dinner.

   2. anything that represents an outstanding effort or achievement.

      Her promotion was the gold star she'd been working for.

Other Word Forms

• gold-star adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of gold star¹

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25

Example Sentences

The Los Angeles City Council voted to bar her return, her child died at birth and Gold Star Mothers raised a furor at the prospect of her return.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Because Stephanie Neeley and her husband make $170,000 combined, they have been paying out-of-pocket for their youngest of three children to attend A Gold Star Academy preschool in Farmington, N.M.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Sarah Krieger recently got the shiniest gold star at work.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But in this past cycle, so many of the ideals I’d fought for felt like they were under attack, not just things like the Muslim ban or treating our Gold Star families and our public servants and former POWs poorly, but also, just the fact that Congress didn’t seem to be asserting its constitutional responsibility.

Read more on Salon

Footage from the far eastern city of Vladivostok, home to Russia's Pacific Fleet, showed mourners laying flowers at a makeshift memorial to Gudkov, who received the Gold Star medal of Hero of Russia in late 2023.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• accolade 
• advantage 
• bonus 
• bounty 
• championship 
• citation 
• crown 
• dividend 
• gold 
• honor 
• inducement 
• jackpot 
• medal 
• payoff 
• purse 
• reward 
• scholarship 
• title 
• trophy 
• windfall