Meaning & use
yellow
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The color of lemons, butter and sunflowers, one of the main colors of the rainbow.
Grammar: Uncountable for the color in general (painted in yellow); countable for a shade (a pale yellow).
Patterns
- painted in yellow
- a shade of yellow
The kitchen walls were painted a warm yellow.
Yellow is the brightest color on the school bus.
She wore a dress in pale yellow.
adjectivecomparable
Having the color of ripe lemons or egg yolks.
Grammar: Can go before a noun or after a linking verb: a yellow door, the leaves turned yellow.
Patterns
- turn yellow
- go yellow
The yellow leaves covered the park path.
Her old newspaper clippings had turned yellow with age.
He bought a bright yellow raincoat.
adjectivecomparableinformalold-fashioneddisapproving
Lacking courage and quick to run from danger or difficulty.
Grammar: Used after a linking verb and describes a person's character: he was too yellow to speak up.
He called his rival yellow for backing out of the fight.
Nobody wanted to look yellow, so they all climbed the wall.
The old film hero would never be yellow in a crisis.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To become yellow, or to make something yellow, usually as time passes.
Grammar: Often intransitive when paper or leaves change color: the pages yellowed.
Patterns
- yellow with age
The curtains had yellowed after years in the sun.
Age yellowed the photographs in the album.
Leaves begin to yellow in early autumn.
Word forms
| comparative | yellower |
|---|---|
| superlative | yellowest |
| third person singular | yellows |
| past tense | yellowed |
| -ing form | yellowing |
Common combinations
- bright yellow
- The bright yellow tulips stood out against the grass.
- pale yellow
- The baby's room was a pale yellow.
- turn yellow
- Bananas turn yellow as they ripen.
- yellow card
- The referee showed him a yellow card.
- yellow pages
- We found the plumber's number in the yellow pages.
- yellow with age
- The letters were yellow with age.
Synonyms and how they differ
- golden
- Golden is a richer, warmer yellow that suggests gold, while yellow can be any shade of the color.
- lemon
- Lemon names one pale, sharp shade of yellow, and is used mostly for color names.
- cowardly
- Cowardly is the standard, neutral word for lacking courage, while yellow is an informal, dated insult.
- chicken
- Chicken, used in the informal sense, is lighter and more playful than yellow, which sounds harsher.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: yellow or yolk?
yellow vs yolk
Yolk is the yellow part of an egg and has a different spelling and pronunciation from yellow.
Practice
The pages of the old book had ___ over the years.
Choose one answer.
After had, a past participle is needed. Yellowed is the past participle of the verb yellow. Yellows is present tense, and yellowing would not fit after had.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “yellow”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.