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Added 8 October 2026

gold

/ɡəʊld/ noun

In Latin: aurum Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about gold at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79.
A coin or coinage made of this material, or supposedly so.
The pirates were searching for gold.
A deep yellow colour, resembling the metal gold.
gold:

symbol

☉ (alchemy)

adjective

Made of gold.
a gold chain
Having the colour of gold.
gold sticker
Premium, superior.

verb

To appear or cause to appear golden.

Origin

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 Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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