yellow
Americannoun
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a color like that of egg yolk, ripe lemons, etc.; the primary color between green and orange in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 570 and 590 nanometers.
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the yolk of an egg.
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a yellow pigment or dye.
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Informal. yellow light.
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Slang. yellow jacket.
adjective
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of the color yellow.
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Disparaging and Offensive.
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designating or pertaining to an Asian person or Asian peoples.
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designating or pertaining to a person of mixed racial origin, especially of black and white heritage.
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having a sallow or yellowish complexion.
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Informal. cowardly.
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(of a newspaper, book, etc.) featuring articles, pictures, or other content that is sensational, especially morbidly or offensively so.
yellow rags;
yellow biographies.
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dishonest in editorial comment and the presentation of news, especially in sacrificing truth for sensationalism, as in
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jealous; envious.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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any of a group of colours that vary in saturation but have the same hue. They lie in the approximate wavelength range 585–575 nanometres. Yellow is the complementary colour of blue and with cyan and magenta forms a set of primary colours
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a pigment or dye of or producing these colours
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yellow cloth or clothing
dressed in yellow
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the yolk of an egg
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a yellow ball in snooker, etc
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any of a group of pieridine butterflies the males of which have yellow or yellowish wings, esp the clouded yellows ( Colias spp.) and the brimstone
adjective
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of the colour yellow
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yellowish in colour or having parts or marks that are yellowish
yellow jasmine
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having a yellowish skin; Mongoloid
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informal cowardly or afraid
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offensively sensational, as a cheap newspaper (esp in the phrase yellow press )
verb
Sensitive Note
It is perceived as insulting to use yellow to describe a person of Asian or mixed racial origin, as in the terms yellow peril and high yellow.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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yellowsimple
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yellowssimple
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have yellowedperfect
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has yellowedperfect
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am yellowingprogressive
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are yellowingprogressive
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is yellowingprogressive
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have been yellowingperfect progressive
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has been yellowingperfect progressive
Past
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yellowedsimple
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had yellowedperfect
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was yellowingprogressive
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were yellowingprogressive
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had been yellowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of yellow
First recorded before 900; 1895–1900 yellow for def. 9; Middle English yelou (adjective and noun), Old English geolo, geolu (adjective); cognate with Dutch geel, German gelb, Old Norse gulr; akin to Latin helvus “pale yellow,” Persian zar “gold” ( see jargon 2 ( def. )), Sanskrit hári “brown, green, yellow”
Explanation
Yellow is the color you'll see in a rainbow, right between orange and green. Yellow is the color of daffodils, lemons, and the traffic light that is supposed to make cars slow down. The word yellow comes from a Proto-Indo-European root word that means "to shine." Sunflowers, egg yolks, and corn on the cob all share this bright color, and if you're asked to draw a picture of the sun, you're likely to grab a yellow crayon. The informal meaning of yellow, "cowardly," has been around since the 1850s, and may have originated in a Texas slur for Mexican soldiers, whose uniforms were yellow.
Vocabulary lists containing yellow
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:
He was all but invisible until, frustrated, he felled Spanish keeper Unai Simón with a cheap shot in the final minutes, drawing a well-deserved yellow card.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
While the $4,000 an ounce support level for the yellow metal appears to be intact, there is “little conviction that further stress across financial markets will drive significant flows into the precious metal,” she says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
In Montreal, the sky turned yellow on Tuesday morning due to smoke from wildfires burning several hundred miles away in northern Quebec and northwestern Ontario.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
"You could say that my falling transformed a yellow card into a red card. But in fact, the most appropriate punishment was a yellow one."
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
She’d already removed the mask and untied the yellow beak that she’d made with paint and scrap pieces lying about.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
Russell insisted he had slowed sufficiently for the Verstappen incident, and said there was just a single yellow flag showing, rather than the double waved yellows which might have been expected for such a situation.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
To corners, to free-kicks and second yellows to name three.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
On the wall behind the couch where clients sit, I hung a tapestry that features a sun rising over an abstract landscape of pinks and yellows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
Roughly 8 feet square, this dense frontal forest of figures—part human, part animal, part vegetal—in acidic blues, yellows and greens, is Cubist, Surrealist, Afro-Cuban.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026
It was a remarkable bird, as large as a pheasant, but with feathers of all colors, garish reds and yellows and vivid blues.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
As well as this, "he was just getting yellower and yellower", she said.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2025
If the sky looks blue, that could also make the sun look yellower.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 1, 2023
Light bulbs with warmer or yellower tones are more suited to our circadian rhythm than bluer light — that’s why the “night” mode on your smartphone uses them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2022
It had red writing spelling out the brand name Velveeta, the cheese substance that, depending on your color sense, is either bold gold or yellower than school bus yellow.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2022
The ones that were born a bit yellower to begin with lived to an old age in the drought; the birds couldn’t see them in the parched grass.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Mallory Ortberg: “Jeeves, bring me my whangee, my yellowest shoes, and the old green Homburg. I’m going into the Park to do pastoral dances.”
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2017
Fishkill Farms has the best eggs with the yellowest yolks.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2016
A Hogarthian cast of characters, from Britain's lordliest media barons to subalterns on the yellowest of yellow rags.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 29, 2012
They imported from Publisher Hearst, then at his yellowest, some of the country's leading scarehead artists.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was the best dowered maiden for fifty miles round, and though young in her teens, made the yellowest butter and firmest cheese for three villages round.
From Tales of the Toys, Told by Themselves by Broderip, Frances Freeling
Ms. Brown keeps yellowed documents from the farm’s early days, including the 1741 deed to the property from Lord Thomas Fairfax, who owned millions of acres in Virginia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
They simply weren’t my taste anymore, and I didn’t like how the resin had yellowed over time.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026
Fruit stored at 30°C yellowed rapidly, while mangoes kept at 12°C maintained their color longer because chlorophyll breakdown slowed significantly.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2026
After expending so much blood, sweat and tears to reach the majors, their reward was a single yellowed newspaper box score with their name in it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2025
The plaster ceiling was bellied in great swags and the yellowed dentil molding was bowed and sprung from the upper walls.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
On the yellowing front page, 20 or so young Greenlanders smile, feet planted in the snow.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
It’s the moment of yellowing when lead starts becoming gold but isn’t gold yet.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 28, 2026
Beneath those were strips of yellowing shoe patterns and a tracing of the actor’s foot with a note written in loopy cursive:
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2025
The rest of the yellowing is a sign not of bad hygiene but of natural teeth “within a range of normal for that age,” Taylor said.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2025
The door’s half open and I can see a tiny room with a toilet, a pull-string flusher at the top, a bulb with a yellowing plastic shade.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
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.
