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

Japanese government bond yields were trading at multidecade highs early Friday, with the latest 10-year yield gaining 3.5 basis points to 3.110%—the highest since August 1996.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The 10-year Treasury yield last traded 1.3 basis points higher at 5.174%, below Thursday’s intraday high of 5.225%, the highest level since mid-2007, according to Tradeweb data.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Longer-term Treasury yields, particularly the benchmark 10-year yield, directly influence how much American consumers and businesses pay to borrow, including on mortgages and auto loans.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026

Japan's 10-year yield reached a fresh 30-year high in morning trade on Friday.

From Barron's

The crown jewel of their elaborate trading positions was still the $2 billion in bespoke credit default swaps Hubler felt certain would one day very soon yield $2 billion in pure profits.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

A renewed rally in Treasury yields and a stronger dollar also continue to weigh on market sentiment, they add.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Treasury yields are reflecting a combination of resilient economic growth, persistent inflation concerns, elevated fiscal deficits and a market that continues to reassess where “normal” interest rates should reside, she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Investors are focusing on domestic bond yields and updates from the U.S.-China summit meeting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

"Bond yields are bouncing around like a see-saw," Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, wrote in a note.

From Barron's

That Indian farmers had greater skill and bounty, and more successful yields, than most Europeans who worked the same land.

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline

But experts say that not much concrete has been yielded in talks so far.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

Between them they yielded eight and a half points, compared with five contributed by America's three captain's picks.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Incidentally, the city that launched Frankel is home to her least favorite Caesar, an olive-strewn offering that yielded her lowest-ever rating of 5.4.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

For the most part, California has declined to usurp local governments’ power to decide what is built where, which has yielded relentless development of wildlands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

Of course, all of this searching had yielded a big fat doughnut.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

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

In Thursday trading U.S. 10-year bonds were yielding 4.83% and Nasdaq futures were indicating a lower open.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

The claw machine—that infamous promiser of childhood treasures, known for stealing your quarters and almost never yielding up its flimsy prizes—has gotten an upgrade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

Distantly, the rendering sails wash back and forth, a borealis yielding some mysterious benefit to our business partners and guests.

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson

Related Words

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