amber

Pluralambers

Formsambers, ambering, ambered

1. 1
   golden brownadjective

   Brownish yellow, like the usual color of amber.

   His amber eyes caught the firelight.

   The fields glowed amber in the late afternoon sun.

   Similargolden, tawny

2. 2
   fossil resinnouncountable or uncountable

   A hard fossil resin from ancient trees, mostly conifers but also some flowering trees, usually yellow to brown and translucent, used in jewelry and decoration and once dissolved as a binder in varnishes.

   The museum displayed a beetle perfectly preserved in amber from forty million years ago.

   Baltic amber has been traded across Europe since prehistoric times.

   UsageAn insect is preserved in amber; jewelry is made of amber.

   Note

   Its stickiness was once as familiar as its shine. Shakespeare reaches for it in Hamlet, where old men's eyes are purging "thick amber and plum-tree gum". In The Taming of the Shrew it appears as amber bracelets and beads. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains the quoted description of old men’s eyes; Hamlet speaks the words to Polonius. folger.edu
   • The Taming of the Shrew mentions amber bracelets and beads, in Petruchio’s speech. internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
3. 3
   a golden shadenouncountable or uncountable

   A warm color in the yellow-orange range.

   The whiskey shone a rich amber in the glass.

   The fall leaves deepened from gold to amber.

4. 4
   traffic lightnounAustraliaBritishcountable or uncountable

   The middle signal in a set of three traffic lights, which when lit tells drivers to stop if it is safe to do so.

   He braked as the amber showed, knowing red would follow.

   At that junction the amber seems to last only a second.

   UsageOften on amber: stop on amber if it is safe. The amber can stand alone, without light after it.

   Similaryellow

   Note

   A British and Australian name for the signal: in American English the same lamp is the yellow light.

5. 5
   cautious approvalnoununcountable

   A state of hesitation or only limited approval to move forward, by analogy with a yellow traffic signal.

   The committee signaled amber on the merger, urging caution before any commitment.

   An amber from the regulators meant the launch could proceed only on strict conditions.

   Similarcaution

   Note

   Borrowed straight from the road, this sense sits between a green light and a red one. A 1973 congressional hearing complained that business, once given the green light, now seemed to be on amber. It suits caution in politics and business: not a refusal, but not a go-ahead either. Compare the traffic signal it comes from. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • The figurative sense draws on the intermediate amber traffic signal. en.wikipedia.org
6. 6
   geneticsnouncountable or uncountable

   The stop codon UAG, which signals the end of protein synthesis; also a mutant carrying that codon at a premature point in its sequence.

   A premature amber truncated the polypeptide halfway through translation.

   Researchers introduced an amber to test how the ribosome handled the stop signal.

   Note

   In genetics the word is a name, not a description of color, and it works mostly as a modifier: an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor. Read it as the label for UAG, never as a hint about pigment. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The genetics name derives from a person's name rather than a description of color. en.wikipedia.org
   • Amber identifies the codon UAG. febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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