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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

green.

The color of grass and leaves; a primary additive color midway between yellow and blue which is evoked by light between roughly 495–570 nm.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡɹiːn/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation[ˈɡɹʷɪi̯n]Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡɹin/US/ˈɡɾin/Scotland
  1. The color of grass and leaves; a primary additive color midway between yellow and blue which is evoked by light between roughly 495–570 nm.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A member of a green party; an environmentalist.

    capitalized · countable · sometimes · uncountable
  3. A putting green, the part of a golf course near the hole.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The surface upon which bowls is played.

    countable · uncountable
  5. One of the color balls used in snooker, with a value of 3 points.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A public patch of land in the middle of a settlement.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  7. A grassy plain; a piece of ground covered with verdant herbage.

    countable · uncountable
  8. Fresh leaves or branches of trees or other plants; wreaths.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
  9. Any substance or pigment of a green color.

    countable · uncountable
  10. A green light used as a signal.

    countable · uncountable
  11. Marijuana.

    slang · uncountable
  12. Money.

    US · slang · uncountable
  13. One of the three color charges for quarks.

    countable · particle · uncountable
  14. Ellipsis of green room.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · informal · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *gróh₁nis Proto-Germanic *grōniz 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, Faroese grønur, Icelandic grænn. The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is a semantic loan from Spanish verde. In other varieties of English, blue is the color instead associated with obscenity or pornography.

adj/ˈɡɹiːn/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation[ˈɡɹʷɪi̯n]Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡɹin/US/ˈɡɾin/Scotland
  1. Of a green hue.

    He is wearing a green shirt.
    The former flag of Libya is fully green.
  2. Sickly, unwell.

    figuratively
    Sally looks pretty green—is she going to be sick?
  3. Unripe, said of certain fruits that change color when they ripen.

  4. Inexperienced.

    figuratively
    John's kind of green, so take it easy on him this first week.
  5. Islamist.

    capitalized · sometimes
  6. Full of life and vigour; fresh and vigorous; new; recent; young.

    figuratively
    a green manhood
    a green wound
  7. Naive or unaware of obvious facts.

    figuratively
  8. Overcome with envy.

    figuratively
    He was green with envy.
  9. Environmentally friendly.

    figuratively
    green energy
    Green New Deal
  10. Of a green party, environmentalism-oriented.

    capitalized · sometimes
  11. Describing a pitch which, even if there is no visible grass, still contains a significant amount of moisture.

  12. Of bacon or similar smallgoods: unprocessed, raw, unsmoked; not smoked or spiced.

    dated
  13. Not fully roasted; half raw.

    dated
  14. Of film: freshly processed by the laboratory and not yet fully physically hardened.

    historical
  15. Of freshly cut wood or lumber that has not been dried: containing moisture and therefore relatively more flexible or springy.

    That timber is still too green to be used.
  16. High or too high in acidity.

  17. Having a sexual connotation; indecent; lewd; risqué; obscene; profane.

    Philippines · informal
  18. Having a color charge of green.

    particle
  19. Being or relating to the green currencies of the European Union.

    the green pound
    the green lira
  20. 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.

  21. Of or pertaining to a part formed from compacted metal powder which has not yet undergone sintering to improve its strength.

  22. Having a status (as correct, ready, or safe) denoted or coded by the color green.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *gróh₁nis Proto-Germanic *grōniz 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, Faroese grønur, Icelandic grænn. The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is a semantic loan from Spanish verde. In other varieties of English, blue is the color instead associated with obscenity or pornography.

verb/ˈɡɹiːn/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation[ˈɡɹʷɪi̯n]Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡɹin/US/ˈɡɾin/Scotland
  1. To make or turn (something) green or greener.

    transitive
  2. To become or grow green in color.

  3. To add greenspaces to (a town, etc.).

    transitive
  4. To become environmentally aware.

    intransitive
  5. To make (something) environmentally friendly.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English grenen, from Old English grēnian (“to become green, flourish”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōnijan, from Proto-Germanic *grōnijōną, *grōnijaną (“to become green”), from the adjective (see above). Cognate with Saterland Frisian gräinje, German Low German grönen, German grünen, Swedish gröna, Icelandic gróna.

intj/ˈɡɹiːn/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation[ˈɡɹʷɪi̯n]Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡɹin/US/ˈɡɾin/Scotland
  1. Used to indicate that the speaker wishes to commence (or to continue a previously stopped) sexual activity.

Where this word comes from

From the colors used on traffic lights; green being the one that allows vehicles to move on.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.