yield

American  

[yeeld] / jild /

verb (used with object)

• yields,
  present (3rd person singular)
• yielded,
  past participle,  past
• yielding
  present participle

1. 

   to give forth or produce by a natural process or in return for cultivation.

   This farm yields enough fruit to meet all our needs.

   Synonyms:

   bear, render, supply, furnish

2. to produce or furnish (payment, profit, or interest).

   a trust fund that yields ten percent interest annually; That investment will yield a handsome return.

3. to give up, as to superior power or authority.

   They yielded the fort to the enemy.

   Synonyms:

   forgo, waive, abdicate, abandon

4. to give up or surrender (oneself ).

   He yielded himself to temptation.

   Antonyms:

   resist

5. to give up or over; relinquish or resign.

   to yield the floor to the senator from Ohio.

6. to give as due or required.

   to yield obedience to one's teachers.

   Synonyms:

   render

7. to cause; give rise to.

   The play yielded only one good laugh.

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verb (used without object)

• yields,
  present (3rd person singular)
• yielded,
  past participle,  past
• yielding
  present participle

1. to give a return, as for labor expended; produce; bear.

2. to surrender or submit, as to superior power.

   The rebels yielded after a week.

3. to give way to influence, entreaty, argument, or the like.

   Don't yield to their outrageous demands.

   Synonyms:

   bow, comply, give in

4. to give place or precedence (usually followed byto ).

   to yield to another; Will the senator from New York yield?

5. to give way to force, pressure, etc., so as to move, bend, collapse, or the like.

   I've pushed and pushed, but this door will not yield.

noun

• yields
  plural

1. something yielded.

   Synonyms:

   fruit

2. the quantity or amount yielded.

3. the act or process of yielding.

   the yield of plastic materials under stress.

4. Chemistry. the quantity of product formed by the interaction of two or more substances, generally expressed as a percentage of the quantity obtained to that theoretically obtainable.

5. the income produced by a financial investment, usually shown as a percentage of cost.

6. a measure of the destructive energy of a nuclear explosion, expressed in kilotons of the amount of TNT that would produce the same destruction.

yield British  

/ jiːld /

verb

1. to give forth or supply (a product, result, etc), esp by cultivation, labour, etc; produce or bear

2. (tr) to furnish as a return

   the shares yielded three per cent

3. to surrender or relinquish, esp as a result of force, persuasion, etc

4. to give way, submit, or surrender, as through force or persuasion

   she yielded to his superior knowledge

5. to agree; comply; assent

   he eventually yielded to their request for money

6. (tr) to grant or allow; concede

   to yield right of way

7. obsolete (tr) to pay or repay

   God yield thee!

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noun

1. the result, product, or amount yielded

2. the profit or return, as from an investment or tax

3. the annual income provided by an investment, usually expressed as a percentage of its cost or of its current value

   the yield on these shares is 15 per cent at today's market value

4. the energy released by the explosion of a nuclear weapon expressed in terms of the amount of TNT necessary to produce the same energy

5. chem the quantity of a specified product obtained in a reaction or series of reactions, usually expressed as a percentage of the quantity that is theoretically obtainable

yield Cultural  

1. The income from a fixed-income security as a percentage of its market price. For example, if the market price of a bond declines, its yield rises.

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Synonym Usage

Yield, submit, surrender mean to give way or give up to someone or something. To yield is to concede under some degree of pressure, but not necessarily to surrender totally: to yield ground to an enemy. To submit is to give up more completely to authority, superior force, etc., and to cease opposition, although usually with reluctance: to submit to control. To surrender is to give up complete possession of, relinquish, and cease claim to: to surrender a fortress, one's freedom, rights. See crop.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underyield
  noun
• yielder
  noun
• outyield
  verb (used with object)
• underyield
  verb (used without object)
• unyielded
  adjective
• yieldable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• yields
  plural

Participles

• yielding
  present
• yielded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• yield
  simple
• yields
  simple
• have yielded
  perfect
• has yielded
  perfect
• am yielding
  progressive
• are yielding
  progressive
• is yielding
  progressive
• have been yielding
  perfect progressive
• has been yielding
  perfect progressive

Past

• yielded
  simple
• had yielded
  perfect
• was yielding
  progressive
• were yielding
  progressive
• had been yielding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will yield
  simple
• will have yielded
  perfect
• will be yielding
  progressive
• will have been yielding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of yield

First recorded before 900; (for the verb) Middle English y(i)elden, Old English g(i)eldan “to pay”; cognate with German gelten “to be worth, apply to”; noun derivative of the verb

Explanation

Yield has two meanings that seem quite different: "an amount" or "to give way." The yield of the recipe was twelve brownies. To avoid being tripped, Mary was forced to yield to the children on her way to the brownie plate. While these meanings seem quite different, they both essentially mean "to give." The recipe gives twelve brownies to those who follow it, and Mary is giving up her right to go first. Yield can also mean the rate of return on an investment. A bond yields an interest rate of 2%, or gives an investor $2.00 for every $100 invested.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yield yields yielded yielding

Pimco’s Dan Ivascyn this week told the Financial Times that the 10-year Treasury yield could hit 6% if highly leveraged investors have to suddenly unwind losing bets after weeks of heavy selling.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

The bank expects 10-year yield to settle at around 5% by the end of the year, adding that small-cap stocks could rebound if rates peak soon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

After weeks of heavy selling the yield on 10-year government bonds is now flirting with the psychological threshold of five percent, a level not seen since 2002.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Still, a 6% 10-year yield also sounds “reasonable” if the prices for oil and related fuels stay high, the strong artificial-intelligence spending cycle continues and U.S. economic growth remains constructive, Reid said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

Certainly no one expected his survey to yield any dramatic breakthroughs.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

The AI run-up has occurred against a backdrop in which investors face such challenges as surging bond yields, which are pushing prices of that debt lower and making stocks appear more expensive, he said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2026

On particularly volatile days, strategists and bond managers have expressed concerns about the risk of long-dated Treasury yields becoming unhinged.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

High Treasury yields, a strong U.S. dollar and elevated oil prices have capped investors’ enthusiasm for bitcoin and other non-interest-bearing assets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Dividend ETFs from SPDR, iShares, and Schwab offer yields at least three times the S&P 500’s current level.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

The talks went on for three or four weekends with me discussing various nuclear yields and how the bombs worked and frankly how insane it all was, and she was so kind to me.

From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen

Diplomatic efforts mediated by the United States to end the war more than four years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine have so far yielded no results.

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026

The Miami meeting follows visits to Moscow and Kyiv last month by Witkoff, a longtime Trump confidant, and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, as Washington seeks to revive negotiations that have yielded little progress.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Interviews with State parks personnel indicated they consistently yielded environmental concerns to fire suppression priorities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

It was a fleeting spell at Parkhead that yielded three goals for the former England striker in just eight appearances.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

The problems were compliant, pliable; they yielded to my manipulations, forming into solutions, one after the other.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

The satire from director Alejandro González Iñárritu about an impending climate change apocalypse has divided critics, yielding very mixed reviews.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Rapid nanoparticle growth enabled survival to sizes that efficiently deposit throughout the human respiratory system, yielding inhalation dose rates comparable to or exceeding those from primary combustion sources such as traffic emissions.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

Since its Hong Kong stock-market debut last year, the company’s stock has halved, yielding a $10 billion valuation—far below McDonald’s $180 billion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

She insisted stats justified the call, but the partnership never gelled, yielding only half a point.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Many valuable wild plants yielding food prized by millions of people, such as oaks sought for their edible acorns in many parts of the world, remain untamed even today.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• crop
• earnings
• harvest
• income
• output
• profit
• return
• revenue
• turnout