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
How does teal compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
Several local children with the condition joined him for a ceremony to illuminate the building in the campaign colour, teal.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
As he rolled up in front of my Van Nuys duplex, his teal Ford Tempo shimmering in the speckled fall sun, a wave of first-date excitement flooded my system.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026
The hotel decor is industrial, and certainly luxurious, with exposed pipes, dark teal walls, weathered wood, brass, brick and leather, spacious rooms and generously sized bathrooms.
From Salon • Jan. 13, 2026
The show opens with a Warhol self-portrait from 1986—an imposing nearly 7-foot-tall image of the artist in teal, his spiked hair making him seem like another New York icon, Lady Liberty.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Mrs. Klauson bought a slippery teal convertible even though it was fall in Montana.
From "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by emily m. danforth
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.
