# amber

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈam.bə/ · frequency rank #7,414

## Definitions
1. Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
2. Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
3. A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent or transparent fossil resin from extinct coniferous trees of the pine genus, used for jewellery, decoration and later dissolved as a binder in varnishes. One variety, blue amber, appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight.
4. A yellow-orange colour.
5. The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop when safe to do so. See also yellow light.
6. The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
7. Hesitance to proceed, or limited approval to proceed; an amber light.

## Etymology
From Middle English ambre, aumbre, from Old French aumbre, ambre, from Arabic عَنْبَر (ʕanbar, “ambergris”), from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫 (ʾnbl /⁠ambar⁠/, “ambergris”). Compare English lamber, ambergris. Displaced Middle English smulting (from Old English smelting (“amber”)), Old English eolhsand (“amber”), Old English glær (“amber”), and Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade”).
* The nucleotide sequence "UAG" is named "amber" for the first person to isolate the amber mutation, California Institute of Technology graduate student Harris Bernstein, whose last name ("Bernstein") is the German word for the resin "amber".

## Easily confused with
- **AmE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-ame)
- **AMR** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-amr)
- **amen** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-amen)
- **Ames** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-ames)
- **amir** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-amir)
- **Amor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-amor)
- **AmEx** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-amex)
- **Ayer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-ayer)
- **anger** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-anger)
- **arbor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-arbor)
- **Asher** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-asher)
- **amour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-amour)
- **aster** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-aster)
- **amped** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-amped)
- **auger** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-auger)
- **Ambien** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amber-vs-ambien)
- **Abe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/abe-vs-amber)
- **amb** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amb-vs-amber)
- **Abel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/abel-vs-amber)
- **acer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/acer-vs-amber)

## Common misspellings (7)
`abmer`, `ambber`, `amberr`, `ambre`, `amebr`, `ammber`, `maber`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/amber