yellow
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: homophone: yello
ipa: /ˈjɛl.əʊ/
ipa: /ˈjɛl.oʊ/
ipa: /ˈjɛlə/
ipa: /ˈjælə/
ipa: /ˈjɑlə/
ipa: /ˈjɪlə/
ipa: /ˈjʌlə/
ipa: /ˈjɛl.ɚ/
ipa: /ˈjæl.ɚ/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈjɛlːo(ʊ)/
note: without the toe–tow merger
ipa: /-ɔʊ/
ipa: /ˈjɛlo(w)/
note: Ottawa Valley
ipa: [ˈjɛlo(w)]
note: Ottawa Valley
ipa: [ˈjɤlʊ]
note: Ottawa Valley
ipa: [-ə(w)]
ipa: /ˈjɛl.əʊ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈjɛl.ʌo̞/
ipa: /ˈjel.əʉ/
ipa: /ˈjæl.əʉ/
note: salary–celery merger
ipa: /ˈjæl.əʉ/
rhymes: -ɛləʊ
Forms: form: yellows
form: yeallow
form: yeller
Etymology: From Middle English yelwe, yelou, from Old English ġeolwe, oblique form of Old English ġeolu, from Proto-West Germanic *gelu, from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃wos, from *ǵʰelh₃- (“gleam, yellow”).
Cognate with Scots yella (“yellow”), North Frisian gööl, güül (“yellow”), Saterland Frisian jeel (“yellow”), West Frisian giel (“yellow”), Cimbrian gel, ghéel (“yellow”), Dutch geel (“yellow”), Dutch Low Saxon gael, gel (“yellow”), German gelb, gehl (“yellow”), German Low German gel, geel, gęl, gäl (“yellow”), Luxembourgish giel (“yellow”), Vilamovian gaoł (“yellow”), Yiddish געל (gel), געלב (gelb, “yellow”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish gul (“yellow”), Faroese and Icelandic gulur (“yellow”). Compare also Welsh gell (“bay, tawny”), Latin helvus (“dull yellow”), Irish geal (“white, bright”), Italian giallo (“yellow”) Lithuanian žalias (“green”), Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, “light green”), Persian زرد (zard, “yellow”), Sanskrit हरि (hari, “greenish-yellow”), Russian жёлтый (žóltyj, “yellow”), Russian зелёный (zeljónyj, “green”).
The verb is from Middle English yelwen, ȝalowen, ȝolewen, from Old English ġeolwian, from the adjective.
Senses: examples: text: It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw—not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.
ref: 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper:
text: Red No. 3, red No. 40, blue No. 2 and green No. 3 all have been linked with cancer or tumors in animals. Other sources say red No. 40 and yellow No. 5 and No. 6 contain or may be contaminated with known carcinogens.
ref: 2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN:
glosses: The color of sunflower petals and lemons; the color obtained by mixing green and red light, or by subtracting blue from white light; the color evoked by light of wavelength around 580 nm; one of the three primary colors in subtractive color systems.
glosses: The middle light in a set of three traffic lights, the lighting of which indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection if it is safe to do so.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
snooker
sports
glosses: One of the color balls used in snooker, with a value of 2 points.
topics: games
pocket-billiards
glosses: One of two groups of object balls, or a ball from that group, as used in the principally British version of pool that makes use of unnumbered balls (the yellow(s) and red(s)); contrast stripes and solids in the originally American version with numbered balls).
examples: text: Andrew Surman fired in what proved to be a 37th-minute winner before Forest's Paul Konchesky saw red late on. That second yellow for the loan signing came in stoppage time and did not affect the outcome of a game which Norwich dominated.
ref: 2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2 - 1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A yellow card.
glosses: Any of various pierid butterflies of the subfamily Coliadinae, especially the yellow colored species. Compare sulphur.
Synonyms: sense: light wavelengths
alt: xanth-
word: xantho-
sense: intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights
word: amber
word: blond
word: cream
word: dandelion
word: gold
word: khaki
word: lemon
word: yellow
Hypernyms: word: color
word: hue
word: pigment
Hyponyms: topics: color
word: bronze yellow
topics: color
word: cadmium yellow
topics: color
word: fast yellow AB
topics: color
word: quinoline yellow
topics: color
word: lemon yellow
topics: color
word: optic yellow
topics: color
word: school bus yellow
topics: color
word: sulfur yellow
topics: color
word: sulphur yellow
topics: color
word: taxi yellow
topics: color
word: yellow-green
topics: color
word: yellow 2G
Coordinate terms: sense: light in a set of three traffic lights
word: red
sense: light in a set of three traffic lights
word: green
Derived terms: beyellowed
Related terms: word: cowardly
word: decoloured
word: discolored
word: icterus
word: jaundice
word: red
word: orange
word: green
word: blue
word: violet
word: white