gold

/ˈɡɒld//ɡəʊld/

gold noun: (uncountable) A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

gold (countable and uncountable, plural gold or golds)

(uncountable) A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79.
- You like to hear about gold.
  A king filled his prison room
  As full as the room could hold
  To the top of his reach on the wall
  With every known shape of the stuff.
  ’Twas to buy himself off his doom.1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range
A coin or coinage made of this material, or supposedly so.
- The pirates were searching for gold.
(uncountable) A deep yellow colour, resembling the metal gold.
(countable) The bullseye of an archery target.
- Daniel hit the gold to win the contest.
(countable) A gold medal.
- France has won three golds and five silvers.
(figuratively) Anything or anyone that is very valuable.
- That food mixer you gave me is absolute gold, mate!
- Now obviously this meant that I went over my allotted time, but the theatre management didn't mind because I was giving them comedy gold and that's what gets bums on seats.2010, Paul Hendy, Who Killed Simon Peters?
Synonyms:

good as gold
(in plural, slang) A grill (jewellery worn on front teeth) made of gold.

Symbol

gold

☉ (alchemy)

Synonyms:

aurum, E175 when used as a food colouring

Adjective (1)

gold (not generally comparable, comparative golder, superlative goldest)

(not comparable, usually) Made of gold.
- a gold chain
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
Synonyms:

golden
(not comparable, usually) Having the colour of gold.
- gold sticker
- gold socks
Synonyms:

golden
(not comparable, usually) Premium, superior.
(not comparable, usually) Of a musical recording, having sold 500,000 copies.
- The album went gold, then platinum, thanks to a second hit single, "It's A Miracle".2000, Billboard, volume 112, number 20, page 52
(not comparable, usually) Subject to or involving a model of open access in which a published article is immediately available for to read for free with no embargo period.
- Coordinate term: green
- Scholars who make their work green open access rather than gold never pay a fee to do so. Even when they choose the gold route, only 33% of peer-reviewed open access journals charge author-side fees.2013 October 21, Peter Suber, “Open access: six myths to put to rest”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2023

Verb

gold (third-person singular simple present golds, present participle golding, simple past and past participle golded)

(transitive) To appear or cause to appear golden.
- I caught sight of something that seemed the nexus of all that glittered, all that golded: like a hallucination in the traffic's rotary heart, a saried creature giddily swirling her own razored rainbow roundabout, mirrored fabric sending light spinning like saberlike amidst the smoking, choking cars.2010, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Born Confused
- You are the sun at Noon, that golds the barley, and pulls the bee to the ling on the moor.2011, Harry Nicholson, Tom Fleck, page 250

Adjective (2)

gold (not comparable)

In a finished state, ready for manufacturing.
- The Company confirmed that Half-Life 2, developed by Valve Software, has gone gold with a planned retail street date of November 16, 2004.2004 November, “Half-Life 2 goes gold”, in HWM, page 10
- He felt bone-tired and twitchy, the way he did in the final stages of putting a video-game project together, almost ready to go gold and turn a new game loose on the public.2011, Jordan Gray, Unearthed, page 6

Adverb

gold (not comparable)

of or referring to a gold version of something

Proper noun capitalized: Gold

Gold (plural Golds)

An English surname originating as an occupation for a goldsmith or a rich man.

Noun (2) capitalized: Gold

Gold (plural Golds)

A member of the Goldi or Nanai people.

gold meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

gold in Hindi

element Au: सोना sonā, स्वर्ण svarṇ, कंचन kañcan, कनक kanak, हेम hem, भृंगार bhŕṅgār
coin: स्वर्ण svarṇ, जर jar
colour: सुनहरी sunahrī, सुनहरा sunahrā, सुनहला sunahlā, स्वर्ण svarṇ, जरी jarī
gold medal: स्वर्ण svarṇ

gold in Tamil

element Au: தங்கம் taṅkam, பொன் poṉ, கூழ் kūḻ, கூழை kūḻai, உரை urai

gold in Marathi

element Au: सोने sone
colour: सोनेरी sonerī
made of gold, golden: सोन्याचा sonyācā, सोन्याचे sonyāce, सोन्याची sonyācī, सुवर्ण suvarṇa, सोनेरी sonerī

gold in Urdu

element Au: سونا sonā, زَر zar
colour: سنہری sunharī

More languagesFewer languages

gold in Bengali: সোনা śōna, জর jor
gold in Telugu: బంగారము baṅgāramu, కనకం kanakaṁ, స్వర్ణం svarṇaṁ, పొన్ను ponnu
gold in Malayalam: പൊന്ന് ponnŭ, സ്വർണ്ണം svaṟṇṇaṁ, സ്വർണം svaṟṇaṁ
gold in Kannada: ಚಿನ್ನ cinna
gold in Punjabi: ਸੋਨਾ sonā
gold in Gujarati: સોનું sonũ
gold in Odia: ସୁନା sunā
gold in Sanskrit: सुवर्ण suvarṇa, काञ्चन kāñcana, हिरण्य hiraṇya, कनक kanaka
gold in Sinhala: රන් ran, රත්තරං rattaraṁ
gold in Assamese: সোণ xün, স্বৰ্ণ sorno
gold in Nepali: सुन suna
gold in Tagalog: ginto, panika, kulay ginto, ginto na
gold in Arabic: ذَهَب ḏahab, إِبْرِيز ʔibrīz, دهب dahab, ذَهَبِي ḏahabī
gold in Malay: emas, kencana, aurum
gold in Indonesian: mas, emas, kencana
gold in Persian: طِلَّا tillā, زَر zar, طَلا talâ, زَرین zarin
gold in Thai: ทองคำ tɔɔng-kam, ทอง tɔɔng, เหรียญทอง rǐian-tɔɔng
gold in Vietnamese: vàng, vàng kim loại, tiền vàng, đồng vàng
gold in Myanmar: ရွှေ hrwe
Sindhi: سونُ sonu
Dzongkha: གསེར gser

Examples of gold in a sentence

He was pure gold, and she wasn't worth a light beside him.2012, Victor Pemberton, Leo's Girl:
He came into the drawing room resplendent in his gold-and-white turban. […] His cummerbund matched the turban in gold lines.1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Golded up your hair, even, for all your record said indeterminate.2011, D G Compton, A Usual Lunacy:

All 40 example sentences with gold

Synonyms of gold

good as gold
aurum
E175 when used as a food colouring
golden

Forms of gold

Noun
plural	gold
plural	golds
alternative form	☉
plural	Golds
alternative form (obsolete)	gould
Adjective
comparative	golder
superlative	goldest
Verb
third-person singular present	golds
present participle	golding
past participle	golded
past	golded
Proper noun
plural	Golds

Plural of gold: gold or golds

Origin of gold

From Middle English gold, from Old English gold (“gold”), from Proto-West Germanic *golþ, from Proto-Germanic *gulþą (“gold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰl̥h₃tóm (“gold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”). Related to yellow; see there for more. Germanic cognates include Scots gowd, Dutch goud, German Gold, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk gull, Danish and Swedish guld, and cognates from other Indo-European languages include Latvian zelts, Russian зо́лото (zóloto), Persian زرد (zard, “yellow, golden”), Sanskrit हिरण्य (hiraṇya).

From gold master, a copy of the code certified as being ready for release.

Words formed from gold

Phrases with gold

165 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with gold

30 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gold

What does gold mean?: Gold means (uncountable) A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79.
What is gold in Hindi?: Gold in Hindi is सोना (sonā), स्वर्ण (svarṇ), कंचन (kañcan). See Gold meaning in Hindi.
How do you use gold in a sentence?: He was pure gold, and she wasn't worth a light beside him.
What part of speech is gold?: Gold can be a noun, a symbol, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce gold?: Gold is pronounced /ɡəʊld/ (UK).
What is the plural of gold?: The plural of gold is gold.

Words near gold in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gold (page history and authors); Gold (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-gold.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-gold.wav.

Cite this entry: “gold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.