Word.ws English Dictionary

red top

red top noun: a tabloid newspaper, particularly one of those aimed primarily at a working class audience and considered to have lower journalistic standards than black tops or broadsheets.

red top: a tabloid newspaper, particularly one of those aimed primarily at a working class audience and...
Image: Cory Doctorow, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

red top (plural red tops)

  1. (Ireland, UK) A tabloid newspaper, particularly one of those aimed primarily at a working class audience and considered to have lower journalistic standards than black tops or broadsheets.
    • Just as broadsheets only exceptionally outsell any of the tabloids, so middle-market tabloids—the Mail and Express—only rarely outsell the red tops (although the upmarket Sunday Times outsells the mid-market Express on Sunday and The Mail on Sunday outsells The People).1997 August 13, Brian Macarthur, “Diana: mover and shaker”, in The Times
    • Tabloids have their own language. Maybe it's because the pages are smaller than the broadsheet papers, or perhaps it's because they have to make room to fit all those pictures of Jordan in her knickers in each day, but tabloidese is a language and a skill peculiar to the red tops.2010, Sharon Marshall, Tabloid Girl, Hachette UK, →ISBN
  2. (UK) skimmed milk
    • Red-top milk might be about to disappear2020 March 24, James Andrews, “Coronavirus: Tesco is axing skimmed milk and many offers from its shelves”, in The Mirror
  3. (UK) homogenised whole milk
    • Semi-skimmed milk (half the fat of silver and red top)1996, Anne Barnett, Examining Food Technology, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 39
    • Red top milk is in and green top milk is out, according to Guernsey Dairy, which has seen sales of full fat milk increase by 30% since 2019.2026 March 29, Julia Gregory, “Sales of full fat milk on the rise, say producers”, in BBC News

Forms of red top

pluralred tops

Origin of red top

The titles of these newspapers are traditionally presented on a red banner at the top of the front page.

Questions about red top

What does red top mean?
Red top means a tabloid newspaper, particularly one of those aimed primarily at a working class audience and considered to have lower journalistic standards than black tops or broadsheets.
What part of speech is red top?
Red top is a noun.
What is the plural of red top?
The plural of red top is red tops.

Words near red top in the dictionary

  1. red tiger
  2. red tigers
  3. red time
  4. red toad trillium
  5. red toad trilliums
  6. red top
  7. red tops
  8. red tortoise cake
  9. red tortoise cakes
  10. red tree vole
  11. red tree voles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: red top (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.

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