golden

[gohl-duhn]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR golden ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

bright, metallic, or lustrous like gold; of the color of gold; yellow: golden hair.

made or consisting of gold: golden earrings.

exceptionally valuable, advantageous, or fine: a golden opportunity.

having glowing vitality; radiant: golden youth.

full of happiness, prosperity, or vigor: golden hours; a golden era of exploration.

highly talented and favored; destined for success: television's golden boy.

richly soft and smooth: a golden voice.

indicating the fiftieth event of a series: a golden wedding anniversary.

Origin of golden

Middle English word dating back to 1225–75; see origin at gold, -en²

Related formsgold·en·ly, adverbgold·en·ness, nounun·gold·en, adjective

Can be confusedgilded golden

Synonyms for golden

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR golden ON THESAURUS.COM

5. splendid, glorious, joyous.

Golden

[gohl-duh n]

noun

a city in central Colorado.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for golden

brilliant, bright, rich, glorious, shining, auspicious, best, blissful, delightful, excellent, favorable, flourishing, happy, joyful, joyous, opportune, precious, promising, propitious, prosperous

Examples from the Web for golden

Contemporary Examples of golden

But on Thursday Boxer triggered a Golden State political earthquake, announcing that she would not seek a fifth term in 2016.
The Golden State Preps for the ‘Red Wedding’ of Senate Races
David Freedlander
January 9, 2015
The former Virginia governor was once the golden boy of the GOP.
2014 Was a Delectably Good Year for Sleaze
Patricia Murphy
December 30, 2014
And the series was implausibly shut out by both the Golden Globe and SAG Awards.
‘The Comeback’ Finale: Give Lisa Kudrow All of the Awards
Kevin Fallon
December 29, 2014
Congratulations on your Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.
Ava DuVernay on ‘Selma,’ the Racist Sony Emails, and Making Golden Globes History
Marlow Stern
December 15, 2014
“The golden age of Parisian smiles nurtured, and was nurtured by, the rise of dentistry as a vocation,” writes Jones.
The French Court’s Royal Ban on Smiles
William O’Connor
December 14, 2014

Historical Examples of golden

The edge of the garment was curiously wrought with golden palm leaves.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
The whole rested on a golden image of Atlas, bending beneath the weight.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
July 25, 1889, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone celebrated their "Golden Wedding."
The Grand Old Man
Richard B. Cook
I was palsied with doubt, and the golden moments were fleeting, were fleeting.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
That is nothing at all in comparison with Rico's wedding in the 'Golden Sun.'
Rico and Wiseli
Johanna Spyri

British Dictionary definitions for golden

golden

adjective

of the yellowish or brownish-yellow metallic colour of goldgolden hair

made from or largely consisting of golda golden statue

happy or prosperousgolden days

(sometimes capital) (of anniversaries) the 50th in a seriesGolden Jubilee; golden wedding

informal very successful or destined for successthe golden girl of tennis

extremely valuable or advantageousa golden opportunity

Derived Formsgoldenly, adverbgoldenness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for golden

adj.

c.1300, "made of gold," from gold + -en (2); replacing Middle English gilden, from Old English gyldan. Gold is one of the few Modern English nouns that form adjectives meaning "made of ______" by adding -en (e.g. wooden, leaden, waxen, olden); Old English also had silfren "made of silver," stænen "made of stone."

As a color from late 14c. Figurative sense of "excellent, precious, best" is from late 14c. Golden mean "avoidance of excess" translates Latin aurea mediocritas (Horace). Golden age, period of past perfection, is from 1550s, from a concept found in Greek and Latin writers; in sense of "old age" it is from 1961. The moralistic golden rule earlier was the golden law, so called from 1670s.

Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same. [George Bernard Shaw, 1898]