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amber

[am-ber]

noun

a pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle, and capable of gaining a negative electrical charge by friction and of being an excellent insulator: used for making jewelry and other ornamental articles.

the yellowish-brown color of resin.

adjective

of the color of amber; yellowish-brown: amber fields of grain.

made of amber: amber earrings.

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Amber is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

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Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English ambre < Old French < Medieval Latin ambra < Arabic ʿanbar ambergris; confusion of the dissimilar substances perhaps because both were rare, valuable, and found on seacoasts

Related forms

am·ber·like, am·ber·y, am·ber·ous, adjective

Example Sentences

Amber was a tidy, well-behaved girl, neighbors said.

Amber fossils are thus crucial to an understanding of how insects and other invertebrate critters have evolved.

Amber is considered a gem, and pieces containing intact insects are among those that jewelry makers prize the most.

EXPAND

Amber was a tidy, well-behaved girl, neighbors said.

Amber fossils are thus crucial to an understanding of how insects and other invertebrate critters have evolved.

Amber is considered a gem, and pieces containing intact insects are among those that jewelry makers prize the most.

Cow's and goat's milk, along with whey, are boiled until reduced to an amber color.

He has a fascination with mechanical gadgets, the colors amber and steel blue, and body parts embalmed in jars.

But around them, new traffic lights have been installed whose lights change regularly from green to amber to red and back again.

Amber is a semiprecious gemstone formed from fossilized tree sap.

The honey runs in a bright amber stream off the frame.

Aussies' thirst for the amber nectar is hardly growing at all.

Amber can preserve tissue as delicate as dragonfly wings.

Opal basil, used for this batch, produces a dark amber jelly.

The amber color in the center of the comb is nectar.

Amber excludes air and moisture from trapped organisms and has other preservative properties.

Green and honey-toned amber is set in sterling silvel.

SignalGuru is designed to detect traffic lights and track their status as red, amber or green.

Smooth and lightweight amber in a range of its natural, untreated hues.

Instead, the brew pub serves up beer that's honey-colored or amber gold.

Melittosphex burmensis, which has been trapped in amber for the past hundred million years.

One of them produces iodine, which gives the amber color.

Ancient amber framed in sterling silver makes a thoughtful gift.

When they felt no unusual effects, the rodents would push a different lever that was marked with an amber lamp.

And it's dark down here below the stage, save for the glow from green and amber indicator lights.

Its eyes were deep amber and its tail large and creamy with a jagged dark line cutting across it.

He has conditioned his audience to regard his sci-fi work as encased in the amber of childhood.

Beyond lies a field of fine ash speckled with glints of amber and green-the sharp broken bits of circuit boards.

Mosquitoes existed during the age of dinosaurs and can be preserved in amber.

One female holds an infant with an amber face and huge, backlit orange ears, neither mother nor baby showing any fear.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a female given name.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To amber

Collins

World English Dictionary

amber (ˈæmbə)

—n
1.	a. a yellow or yellowish-brown hard translucent fossil resin derived from extinct coniferous trees that occurs in Tertiary deposits and often contains trapped insects. It is used for jewellery, ornaments, etc
	b. (as modifier): an amber necklace Related: succinic
2.	fly in amber a strange relic or reminder of the past
3.	a. a medium to dark brownish-yellow colour, often somewhat orange, similar to that of the resin
	b. (as adjective): an amber dress
4.	an amber traffic light used as a warning between red and green

Related: succinic

[C14: from Medieval Latin ambar, from Arabic `anbar ambergris]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

amber

mid-14c., "ambergris," from O.Fr. ambre, from M.L. ambar, from Arabic 'anbar "amber," a word brought home to Europe by the Crusaders. The sense was extended to fossil resin c.1400, which has become the main sense as the use of ambergris has waned. This formerly was known as white or yellow amber. In

EXPAND

Fr., they are distinguished as ambre gris and amber jaune. Cf. also electric.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

amber (ām'bər) Pronunciation Key

(click for larger image in new window)

A hard, translucent, brownish-yellow substance that is the fossilized resin of ancient trees. It often contains fossil insects.

Our Living Language : Certain trees, especially conifers, produce a sticky substance called resin to protect themselves against insects. Normally, it decays in oxygen through the action of bacteria. However, if the resin happens to fall into wet mud or sand containing little oxygen, it can harden and eventually fossilize, becoming the yellowish, translucent substance known as amber. If any insects or other organisms are trapped in the resin before it hardens, they can be preserved, often in exquisite detail. By studying these preserved organisms, scientists are able learn key facts about life on Earth millions of years ago.

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

Amber definition

language
1. A functional programming language which adds CSP-like concurrency, multiple inheritance and persistence to ML and generalises its type system. It is similar to Galileo. Programs must be written in two type faces, roman and italics! It has both static types and dynamic types.
There is an implementation for Macintosh.
["Amber", L. Cardelli, TR Bell Labs, 1984].
2. An object-oriented distributed language based on a subset of C++, developed at Washington University in the late 1980s.
(1994-12-08)

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Amber definition

(Ezek. 1:4, 27; 8:2. Heb., hashmal, rendered by the LXX. elektron, and by the Vulgate electrum), a metal compounded of silver and gold. Some translate the word by "polished brass," others "fine brass," as in Rev. 1:15; 2:18. It was probably the mixture now called electrum. The word has no connection, however, with what is now called amber, which is a gummy substance, reckoned as belonging to the mineral kingdom though of vegetable origin, a fossil resin.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Amber definition

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