yield
Americanverb (used with object)
-
yields,
present (3rd person singular)
-
yielded,
past participle, past
-
yielding
present participle
-
to give forth or produce by a natural process or in return for cultivation.
This farm yields enough fruit to meet all our needs.
-
to produce or furnish (payment, profit, or interest).
a trust fund that yields ten percent interest annually; That investment will yield a handsome return.
-
to give up, as to superior power or authority.
They yielded the fort to the enemy.
-
to give up or surrender (oneself ).
He yielded himself to temptation.
- Antonyms:
- resist
-
to give up or over; relinquish or resign.
to yield the floor to the senator from Ohio.
-
to give as due or required.
to yield obedience to one's teachers.
- Synonyms:
- render
-
to cause; give rise to.
The play yielded only one good laugh.
verb (used without object)
-
yields,
present (3rd person singular)
-
yielded,
past participle, past
-
yielding
present participle
-
to give a return, as for labor expended; produce; bear.
-
to surrender or submit, as to superior power.
The rebels yielded after a week.
-
to give way to influence, entreaty, argument, or the like.
Don't yield to their outrageous demands.
-
to give place or precedence (usually followed byto ).
to yield to another; Will the senator from New York yield?
-
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
-
something yielded.
- Synonyms:
- fruit
-
the quantity or amount yielded.
-
the act or process of yielding.
the yield of plastic materials under stress.
-
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.
-
the income produced by a financial investment, usually shown as a percentage of cost.
-
a measure of the destructive energy of a nuclear explosion, expressed in kilotons of the amount of TNT that would produce the same destruction.
verb
-
to give forth or supply (a product, result, etc), esp by cultivation, labour, etc; produce or bear
-
(tr) to furnish as a return
the shares yielded three per cent
-
to surrender or relinquish, esp as a result of force, persuasion, etc
-
to give way, submit, or surrender, as through force or persuasion
she yielded to his superior knowledge
-
to agree; comply; assent
he eventually yielded to their request for money
-
(tr) to grant or allow; concede
to yield right of way
-
obsolete (tr) to pay or repay
God yield thee!
noun
-
the result, product, or amount yielded
-
the profit or return, as from an investment or tax
-
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
-
the energy released by the explosion of a nuclear weapon expressed in terms of the amount of TNT necessary to produce the same energy
-
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
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
-
underyieldnoun
-
yieldernoun
-
outyieldverb (used with object)
-
underyieldverb (used without object)
-
unyieldedadjective
-
yieldableadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
yieldsimple
-
yieldssimple
-
have yieldedperfect
-
has yieldedperfect
-
am yieldingprogressive
-
are yieldingprogressive
-
is yieldingprogressive
-
have been yieldingperfect progressive
-
has been yieldingperfect progressive
Past
-
yieldedsimple
-
had yieldedperfect
-
was yieldingprogressive
-
were yieldingprogressive
-
had been yieldingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing yield
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
ASVAB Word Knowledge
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 4
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
The two-year Treasury yield increased 0.6 basis point to 4.552%, while the 10-year yield rose 0.8 basis point to 4.869%, according to Tradeweb.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
The 30-year bond yield rose 0.093 percentage point to 5.349%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
But they didn’t, and the latest 10-year real yield is 1.6 percentage points above its long-term average.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026
The two-year Treasury yield eased 0.2 basis point to 4.519%, while the 10-year yield fell 0.4 basis point to 4.854%, according to Tradeweb.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026
The image on the front was a bright yellow yield sign.
From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein
![]()
Few investors were focused on CoreWeave until a few weeks ago, when its high-yield “junk” bonds plunged in price, sending yields soaring.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Bond yields surged and stocks slumped Tuesday after the consumer inflation report for October suggested the Federal Reserve might need to up the throttle on its inflation fight.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026
For starters, higher yields on already-issued debt are a warning about future financing, but not about the company’s current financing costs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Bond yields surged and stocks slumped early Tuesday after the consumer inflation report for October suggested the Federal Reserve might need to open up the throttle on its inflation fight.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026
When farmers first planted hybrid corn in the 1930s their yields doubled or tripled.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
![]()
Robinson chopped and changed between four and five at the back but that yielded just two top-flight clean sheets.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026
You hardly have to dig deep into history for a time when the 10-year yielded less than 4%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
None of these populations have yielded DNA, and until today none had yielded any molecular data at all.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026
A few other primaries even yielded sore losers; in Texas, Rep. Jasmine Crockett has refused to campaign with fellow Democrat James Talarico after he beat her.
From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026
The melting pot that is America has yielded brand new genres such as big band, jazz, blues, rock and roll, etc.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
![]()
In “Then When,” a sharp rhythm, drummed on the strings, is augmented by percussive hits on different parts of the case, yielding a variety of timbres, and a plucked riff is repeated a few times.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
Rome Health still has a high turnover rate—28% as of last year—but the hospital said lowering that number is yielding results.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
A 10-year Treasury yielding more than 5% starts looking awfully attractive to retirees, pension funds, insurers, foreign institutions and anyone else searching for dependable income.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Here are what several Treasury maturities were yielding early Wednesday.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
The North American site that currently enjoys the strongest credentials as a possible pre-Clovis site is Meadowcroft rock shelter, in Pennsylvania, yielding reported human-associated radiocarbon dates of about 16,000 years ago.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
![]()
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.