yellow
/ˈjɛləʊ/noun, adjective, verb, interjection
yellow is spelled Y-E-L-L-O-W. The wrong spelling people search most is yelow: about 100 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 250 of all searches for the word. Yellow is a noun meaning “The color of sunflower petals and lemons; the color obtained by mixing green and red light, or by subtracting…”. The plural of yellow is yellows.
How many letters and syllables are in yellow?
| Letters | 6: Y-E-L-L-O-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 49 times per million words; the 2,072nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, yelow, about 100 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell yellow?
Yellow is spelled Y-E-L-L-O-W. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 250 of the searches for yellow in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is yellow?
Yellow appears 49 times per million words in written English, the 2,072nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce yellow?
- /ˈjɛləʊ/
- /ˈjɛlo/
- /ˈjɛlə/
Yellow has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-yellow.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-yellow.wav, En-us-yellow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of yellow
- yellows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- yaller
- yellower comparative
- yellowest superlative
- yellowing participle, present
- yellowed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does yellow mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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.
- 2
USThe 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.
- 3
One of the color balls used in snooker, with a value of 2 points.
- 4
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).
- 5
A yellow card.
- 6
A yellow dye or pigment.
- 7
A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of yellow pigment.
- 8
Something, or a part of a thing, which is yellow.
adjective
- 1
Of a yellow hue.
He had a yellow laptop in his bag.
- 2
informalLacking courage.
- 3
Characterized by sensationalism, lurid content, and doubtful accuracy.
- 4
derogatoryoffensiveOf a hue attributed to Far East Asians, especially the Chinese.
- 5
derogatoryoffensiveFar East Asian (relating to Asian people).
- 6
AustraliadatedoffensiveOf mixed Aboriginal and Caucasian ancestry.
- 7
USdatedSynonym of high yellow.
- 8
UKRelated to the Liberal Democrats.
yellow constituencies
verb
- 1
To become yellow or yellower.
- 2
To make (something) yellow or yellower.
- 3
To promote (a captain) to flag rank without command of a squadron, ending his career; to make him a yellow admiral.
interjection
- 1
Used to indicate that the speaker needs a temporary break from current sexual activity.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate yellow?
Wiktionary records 4 abbreviations of yellow: CMY, RGY, yel, ylw.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Yellow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | jaune , froussard, lâche , jaunir |
| German | Gelb , feige , gilben, vergilben , gelb |
| Portuguese | amarelo , covarde, amarelão, amarelona , amarelar |
| Spanish | amarillo , cobarde |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does yellow come from?
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 *ǵʰelh₃wós, from *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).