amber

Meanings

Plural: ambers

Noun

a deep yellow color
- "an amber light illuminated the room"
a hard yellowish to brownish translucent fossil resin; used for jewelry
Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
Formerly thought to be the product of a plant.
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.
A yellow-orange colour.
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.
The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
Hesitance to proceed, or limited approval to proceed; an amber light.

Adjective Satellite

of a medium to dark brownish yellow color

Adj

Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of most amber.

Verb

To perfume or flavour with ambergris.
To preserve in amber.
To cause to take on the yellow colour of amber.
To take on the yellow colour of amber.

Origin / 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".

Synonyms

ambergris, brownish-yellow, gold, yellow, yellow-brown

Antonyms

green, red

Scrabble Score: 9

amber is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
amber is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
amber is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 11

amber is a valid Words With Friends word