green
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: grēn
ipa: /ɡɹiːn/
enpr: grēn
ipa: /ɡɹin/
rhymes: -iːn
Forms: form: greener
form: greenest
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *grōniz
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂
Proto-Germanic *-į̄
Proto-West Germanic *-ī
Proto-West Germanic *grōnī
Old English grēne
Middle English grene
English green
From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). More at grow. Doublet of Gruen.
See also North Frisian green, West Frisian grien, Dutch groen, Low German grön, green, greun, German grün, Danish and Norwegian Nynorsk grøn, Swedish grön, Norwegian Bokmål grønn, Icelandic grænn.
The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is from a calque of Spanish verde.
Senses: examples: text: He is wearing a green shirt.
text: The former flag of Libya is fully green.
text: The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
synonyms: word: verdant
word: vert
word: greenish
word: greenly
word: greeny
word: verdant
word: verdurous
word: vert
word: virescent
word: virid
word: viridescent
antonyms: nongreen
ungreen
glosses: Of a green hue.
examples: text: Sally looks pretty green—is she going to be sick?
text: to look so green and pale
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vii]:
glosses: Sickly, unwell.
raw_tags: of people
antonyms: ripe
glosses: Unripe, said of certain fruits that change color when they ripen.
examples: text: John's kind of green, so take it easy on him this first week.
text: I might be angry[…] with the officious zeal which supposes that its green conceptions can instruct my grey hairs.
ref: 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:
text: He acted like a green racehorse, plunging over his jumps, tearing to the front of the field of riders.
ref: 2008, Richard R. Rust, Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada, page 91:
synonyms: word: callow
word: experienceless
word: inexperienced
word: unexperienced
word: fresh
word: green
word: new
word: pup
word: raw
word: strange
word: unpracticed
word: unseasoned
word: unversed
glosses: Inexperienced.
examples: text: In its most extreme formulation, this vision has devolved into a caricature of Islam as the "Green Peril" (green is the colour of Islam) advancing across the world stage, an image that echoes both the "Red Menace" of Cold War discourse and anti-Asian polemics about the "Yellow Peril".
ref: 1999, Roxanne L. Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism, page 6:
text: Some politicians tried to encourage this replacement of the red with a green menace.
ref: 2006, Benjamin Soares, Muslim-Christian encounters in Africa, page 11:
text: While Bill Clinton struggled during the 1990s to bring order to a chaotic world increasingly wracked by ethnic and religious conflict, critics detected signs that a new "green" threat - radical Islam - was supplanting the earlier "red threat" - international communism - that had kept every president from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan awake at night.
ref: 2009, Douglas Little, American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945, page 317:
topics: government
politics
glosses: Islamist.
examples: text: a green manhood
text: a green wound
text: as valid against such an old and beneficent government as against […] the greenest usurpation
ref: 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:
text: "How old was I when you first took me in a boat?"
 "Five and you were nearly a man when I brought the fish in too green and he nearly tore the boat to pieces. Can you remember?"
ref: 1952, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, page 12:
synonyms: word: new
word: all-new
word: brand new
word: brand spanking new
word: cherry
word: fresh
word: freshly made
word: green
word: hot
word: mint
word: nascent
word: newish
word: new-laid
word: novel
word: pristine
word: red-hot
word: unused
word: verdurous
word: virgin
word: virginal
word: youthful
glosses: Full of life and vigour; fresh and vigorous; new; recent; young.
synonyms: word: gullible
word: credulous
word: green
word: naive
word: fleeceable
word: naif
word: born yesterday
word: fresh off the boat
word: wide-eyed
glosses: Naive or unaware of obvious facts.
raw_tags: of people
examples: text: He was green with envy.
synonyms: envious
glosses: Overcome with envy.
raw_tags: of people
examples: text: green energy
text: Green New Deal
text: As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field.
ref: 2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 22, page 30:
text: The Earth is facing a climate crisis, but it’s also getting greener and leafier. According to new research, the rise is largely courtesy of China and India.
ref: 2019 February 13, Emily Dixon, “China and India are making the planet greener, NASA says”, in CNN:
text: Oatly said it hoped Blackstone’s investment would inspire other private equity firms “to steer their collective worth of $4 trillion into green investments.”
ref: 2021 May 18, Jack Ewing, Lauren Hirsch, “The Big Money Is Going Vegan”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 May 2021:
synonyms: word: eco-friendly
word: environmentally friendly
word: environment-friendly
word: eco-friendly
word: ecological
word: ecologically friendly
word: green
glosses: Environmentally friendly.
topics: government
politics
glosses: Of a green party, environmentalism-oriented.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Describing a pitch which, even if there is no visible grass, still contains a significant amount of moisture.
synonyms: raw
unprocessed
unsmoked
antonyms: processed
smoked
spiced
glosses: Of bacon or similar smallgoods: unprocessed, raw, unsmoked; not smoked or spiced.
examples: text: We say the meat is green when half roasted.
ref: 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:
glosses: Not fully roasted; half raw.
examples: text: Following initial drying of film in a motion picture laboratory (after treatment in a hardening-fixing bath) the gelatin structure of an emulsion contracts and is permanently changed. The hardening action still continues for a time as a further small amount of residual moisture is given up. While traces of excess moisture remain, the emulsion is "green," relatively soft, […]
ref: 1947, Theatre Catalog, volume 5, page 570:
text: […] attaching pre-photographed and pre-printed footage of a focusing chart to daily film footage without taking into consideration that such film may be worn or dried out and therefore, in its plane of best focus, would not be identical to that of the green film of the daily rushes.
ref: 1961, American Cinematographer, volume 42, page 618:
topics: broadcasting
film
media
television
glosses: Of film: freshly processed by the laboratory and not yet fully physically hardened.
examples: text: That timber is still too green to be used.
text: The wood yard was a series of vacant lots where some mysterious person piled cords and cords of wood, which smelled sweet and green and gave out cool breaths.
ref: 1913, Zona Gale, “III. One for the Money”, in When I Was a Little Girl, page 43:
glosses: Of freshly cut wood or lumber that has not been dried: containing moisture and therefore relatively more flexible or springy.
topics: beverages
food
lifestyle
oenology
wine
synonyms: tart
antonyms: cloy
sweet
glosses: High or too high in acidity.
glosses: Having a sexual connotation; indecent; lewd; risqué; obscene; profane.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
antonyms: antigreen
glosses: Having a color charge of green.
examples: text: the green pound
text: the green lira
glosses: Being or relating to the green currencies of the European Union.
examples: text: Coordinate term: gold
text: Today most open access in medicine and biomedicine is gold, but in every other field it's mostly green.
ref: 2013 October 21, Peter Suber, “Open access: six myths to put to rest”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2023:
topics: academia
scholarly
sciences
glosses: Subject to or involving a model of open access in which a published article is only available to read for free after an embargo period.
examples: text: The pressure required to obtain a given green density depends upon the metal powder material being pressed. Excessive pressures can present some complex problems such as punch and die fractures, slip cracks and cleavage fractures in the green part. Although high pressures are required for pressing high density shapes they should not be excessive.
ref: 2014 April 17, Michael Russo, “Understanding the Powdered Metal Process: Spotlight on Compacting”, in National Bronze, archived from the original on 14 Oct 2024:
topics: engineering
metallurgy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Of or pertaining to a part formed from compacted metal powder which has not yet undergone sintering to improve its strength.
examples: text: Conditions all green! Standby...OK! It is time!
ref: 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Fahr Outpost:
glosses: Having a status (as correct, ready, or safe) denoted or coded by the color green.
Derived terms: American green tree frog
Australian green tree frog
ayegreen
baggy green cap
Barns Green
bleen
blue-green
blue-green alga
Blue-Green alliance
blue-green bacterium
Board of Green Cloth
Chinese green radish
colorless green ideas sleep furiously
common green lacewing
dark green fritillary
Deadly never-green
Deadly Never-Green
don't buy green bananas
eastern green drake
engreen
European green lizard
European green woodpecker
evergreen
giant green slantface
Gill's Green
God's green earth
go green
grass-green
greater green leafbird
great green macaw
green about the gills
green accounting
Greenacre
green acres
greenage
green alder
green alga
green ammonia
green anaconda
green anarchism
green anarchist
green and pale
green and wan
green anole
green ant
green apron
green army
green around the gills
green arrow
green artichoke
green as a gooseberry
green asbestos
green as grass
green ash
green at the gills
green audit
greenback
green-backed
green-backed firecrown
green-backed flycatcher
green-backed gerygone
green-backed tit
green bacterium
green-bag
green bag
green baize
green ban
green band
green bass
Green Bay
green bean
green-beard effect
green-bed
green bee-eater
green behind the ears
green belt
greenbelt
Green Beret
green bice
green big-eyed tree frog
green-bind
green bine
green bird
green-black
green blight
green blights
green-blue
greenboard
green body
green bond
greenbone
green-bone
green book
green-book
green-bottle
greenbottle
green-bottle fly
greenbottle fly
green bottle fly
green box
Greenboy
green brass
green-breasted pitta
green bridge
greenbrier
green brier
green broadbill
greenbroke
green-broke
green broom
green bug
greenbug
green building
green bulrush
green burial
green butter
green cancer
green card
green cardamom
green-carder
green carder
Greencastle
green caviar
green chain
green charge
green cheese
green chemistry
greenchop
Green Christmas
green Christmas
green cinnabar
green circle
Greencloth
greencloth
green cloth
green coat
green-coat
green cod
green coffer
green-collar
green collar
green colonialism
green con
green copperas
green cormorant
green corn
green corridor
Green Cove Springs
green crab
green crop
greencrop
green cross
Green Cross Code
green curtain
green diallage
green diesel
green dolphin
green door
green dragon
green drake
green drops
green ear disease
green earth
green ebony
greened
green eel
green endive
green energy
green ephedra
greener
Green Erin
greener pastures
greenery
greenery-yallery
greeneye
green-eyed
green-eyed monster
green eyeshade
greenfaced
green fairy
green fallow
green fat
greenfeed
green fever
greenfield
Greenfield
green field
green fields
green fillet
greenfinch
green-fingered
green fingers
green-finned
green fire
greenfish
greenflag
green-flag
green flag
green flash
greenflation
green fluorescent protein
greenfly
green-fly
green FN
greenfodder
green fringelip labeo
green frog
green fruit beetle
green fund
greengage
greengate
green gate
green gentian
greengill
green-gill
green gill
green-gilled
green ginger
green girl
green gland
green glass
green goblin
Green Goblin
Green Goddess
green goddess
green-gold
green gold
green-golden
green goods
green goose
green gown
green gram
green grasshopper
green-gray
green-grey
green grosbeak
Green Grove
green hairstreak
greenhand
green hand
green handshake
green hastings
green head
greenhead
green-headed sunbird
greenheart
Green Heart
green hellebore
green heron
greenhew
green-hide
green hide
greenhide
greenhood
greenhorn
green hornet
green hotel
green hydrogen
greeniac
greenie
greenify
green indigo
green in earth
greening
green ink brigade
green-ink brigade
green-ink letter
green in one's eye
green in the gills
green investing
green iodide of mercury
green iron ore
greenish
Green Island
Green Isle
greenism
Greenist
greenium
greenize
Green Jackets
green jaundice
green jerkin
green jersey
green jobfish
green joe-pye weed
green jointfir
green joke
green June beetle
green junglefowl
green keeper
greenkeeper
greenkeeping
greenkin
green label
green labeling
green labelling
green lacewing
Green Lake
Greenland
Green Lane
green lane
greenlash
green laver
green lead ore
green leaf lettuce
green leech
green-leek
green leek
green leek parrot
green-leek parrot
greenlet
green-light
green light
green lights to Malibu
Green Line
green line
greenline
greenling
green linnet
Green Linnets
green lizard
green looper
green-louse
green louse
green lung
greenly
green lynx spider
green mamba
green man
greenmans
green manure
green marble
greenmarket
green marsh hawk
green martyrdom
green Mediterranean diet
green milk
green-minded
green mineral
green monardella
green mongo
green monkey
green monkey disease
Green Mountains
Green Mountain State
green muse
green mustard
green mustard cabbage
green nail syndrome
greenness
green nightshade
green non-sulfur bacteria
green notice
green oak
green oil
green old age
green olive
green-on-green
green onion
green open access
green ormer
greenout
green out
green oyster
green paper
Green Park
Green Party
green party
green pass
green pea
Greenpeace
green peafowl
green pea galaxy
green-peak
green-peek
green pepper
green peril
green pheasant
green pigeon
green pit viper
green plot
green plover
green pocket
green pollack
green potato
green pound
green prawn
green premium
green privilege
green queen
green racer
green ray
green revolution
green ribbon
Green River
Green River ordinance
Green River Ordinance
green road
green rod
green roof
green room
greenroom
green-room
green rose
green rot
green rouge
green rush
green rushes
green salad
green salt
green-salted
green salt of Magnus
greensand
green sand
green-sand
green sandpiper
green sauce
greensauce
greenscamming
greenscape
greenschist
green schist
green screen
greenscreen
green sea
green-seal
green seal
green sea turtle
green seaweed
greenshank
green shave
green-shave
green-shaving
greenship
greenshirt
greenshoe
greenshoe option
greensick
greensickness
green-sickness
green sickness
green-sicknessed
greenside
green side
greenskeeper
greenskin
Greensleeves
green slip
green sloke
green smoothie
green snake
green snow
green soap
green soil
green-soil
greensome
greenspace
green space
greenspeak
greensperson
green spot
green-spotted
Green Springs
green spruce
green spurge
green-staff
green-stain
green stain
green-stall
green stamp
green state
green-staves
greenstick fracture
green stock
green stocks
green-stone
greenstone
Green Street
greenstrip
Green Striper
green-striper
green-stuff
greenstuff
green stuff
green sulfur bacteria
green swallow
greensward
green-sward
green sward
greenswarded
green syrup
green table
greentail
green-tail
green-tailed towhee
green-tailed trainbearer
greentailing
green tape
green tar
green tax
green tea
green tea cake
green-tea cake
greentech
greentext
greenth
green thread
green thumb
green-thumbed
green time
green tobacco sickness
green-to-green
green top
green tree ant
green-tree ant
green tree frog
green turtle
green ultramarine
green 'un
green-up
green up
green vegetable bug
green-veined white
Greenville
green-violet
green violet
green vitriol
green wall
green warbler
greenward
greenware
greenwash
greenwashing
green waste
green water
green-water navy
green wave
greenwax
green wax
green wax money
green way
greenway
greenweed
green weenie
green-wellie
green-welly
green welly brigade
green whey
green whistle
green-white-checker
green-white-checkered
green-white-chequer
green-white-chequered
Greenwich
green-wing
greenwing
green-winged
green withe
green with envy
greenwood
green-wood
green wood
green woodpecker
greenwort
greeny
greenyard
green-yard
green yard
green-yellow
Green Zionism
grue
house-green
hypergreen
Indochinese green magpie
in green
in the green tree
in the green tree … in the dry
jade green
keep the bones green
killer green bud
knight of the green baize
knight of the green cloth
lesser green leafbird
light green cell hormone
little green bee-eater
little green man
Macaya green twig anole
Magnus' green salt
microgreen
mint green
Monmore Green
monogreen
multigreen
multi-green
not as green as one is cabbage-looking
on God's green Earth
on God's green earth
outgreen
Palmer's Green
Parliamentary green
read the green
red-and-green macaw
reddish-green
red-green-brown alliance
retrogreen
rifle green
rivage green
sage green
salt-green
scared green
sea-green incorruptible
something green in one's eye
sel-green
sempergreen
sengreen
silgreen
sil-green
sillgreen
sinna-green
smooth green snake
snot-green
soldiers-in-green
southern green stink bug
still-green
supergreen
Talbot Green
the grass is always greener on the other side
the grass is always greener on the other side of the road
The Green
thick-billed green pigeon
three green
ultragreen
ungreen
verigreen
Verona green
violet-green swallow
yellow-green
yellow-green alga
yellow-green brushfinch