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  • yellow pages
    yellow pages
    plural noun
    a classified telephone directory or section of a directory, listing subscribers by the type of business or service they offer, usually printed on yellow paper.
  • Yellow Pages
    Yellow Pages
    plural noun
    a classified telephone directory, often printed on yellow paper, that lists subscribers by the business or service provided
Synonyms

yellow pages

American  

plural noun

(often initial capital letters)
  1. a classified telephone directory or section of a directory, listing subscribers by the type of business or service they offer, usually printed on yellow paper.


Yellow Pages British  

plural noun

  1. a classified telephone directory, often printed on yellow paper, that lists subscribers by the business or service provided

"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

Etymology

Origin of yellow pages

First recorded in 1950–55

Compare meaning

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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:

Facebook didn’t buy yellow pages or local newspapers.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 11, 2026

In the 1960s, he started to dine at Chinese restaurants listed on the local yellow pages.

From BBC Nov. 24, 2021

It was tied into the advertising it was doing in the yellow pages.

From The Verge Jun. 8, 2021

Thumbing through the yellow pages of the binder, she spoke of Sharqiya’s past: It had up-to-date labs for physics and chemistry and was the first school to incorporate computers into its curriculum.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 24, 2020

At the phone, she took out the directory to look up bus companies in the yellow pages.

From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt

Scenes in which Grable had visited an agent inspired Callan to pick up the Yellow Pages, where she found the Molly O’Day Agency.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 9, 2026

New York City’s telephone company in 1886 published the first Yellow Pages directory of business phone numbers—creating a nearly friction-free way for merchants and customers to find one another.

From The Wall Street Journal Nov. 15, 2025

He was inspired by seeing the starry sky, but the title came as he spotted the Yellow Pages across the room.

From BBC Mar. 25, 2024

Gmail creator Paul Buchheit said in December that AI is threatening to do to web search what Google did to the Yellow Pages.

From Washington Times Feb. 1, 2023

So I invented a Black Box Yellow Pages, which is a phone book that’s made out of the material that they make the black boxes on airplanes out of.

From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

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