golden
adjective
golden
1 American
[gohl-duhn]
/ ˈgoʊl dən /
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.
Golden
2
American
[gohl-duhn]
/ ˈgoʊl dən /
noun
golden
British
/ ˈɡəʊldən /
adjective
-
of the yellowish or brownish-yellow metallic colour of gold
golden hair
-
made from or largely consisting of gold
a golden statue
-
happy or prosperous
golden days
-
(sometimes capital) (of anniversaries) the 50th in a series
Golden Jubilee
golden wedding
-
informal very successful or destined for success
the golden girl of tennis
-
extremely valuable or advantageous
a golden opportunity
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of golden
Explanation
Something that's golden is made out of gold. A queen in a fairy tale might wear an elaborate golden crown. Aside from golden ornaments and jewelry, things the color of gold are also golden, like a boy's golden hair or golden fields of wheat. If you talk about a golden time or a golden opportunity, you mean something marked by luck, peace, and happiness. In Old English, it was common to add the suffix -en to mean "made of," but golden is one of just a few of these words in modern English (including wooden and waxen).
Vocabulary lists containing golden
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -en
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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.
See Examples For:
It followed Charlie Bucket, a child who is one of five winners who find "golden tickets" inside a Wonka bar and are invited to tour the mysterious chocolate factory run by the eccentric Willy Wonka.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Warner and Paramount were mainstays of Hollywood’s golden era, but streaming brought tough competition from technology companies such as Netflix and Amazon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
What Paxton must have known, though, is that once he became the nominee, he’d be golden.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2026
Usually Nash, their friendly golden retriever, jumps and barks at new visitors, Rowley said, but once they get inside, “he just thinks it’s time to play.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
The floor lit up with golden ribbons and vines.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
But there’s no guarantee that the increased spending or film production will take place in the Golden State, which has been losing market share in the industry for decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
He argued the Arctic island was an essential piece of his plan to build a futuristic "Golden Dome" defence system to protect the US against missile attacks.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
After setting out from a marina in the San Francisco Bay Area, they passed under the Golden Gate Bridge to the Pacific Ocean and across San Francisco Bay to Angel Island.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Golden also asserts that Oxford and Travis were covering for the original suspect, Jeramy Roebuck.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
In her room was the model of the Golden Gate Bridge that she had made out of Popsicle sticks.
From "Wolfie & Fly" by Cary Fagan
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.
