n road transport, a yield or give way sign indicates that merging drivers must prepare to stop

if necessary to let a driver on another approach proceed. A driver who stops or slows down to
let another vehicle through has yielded the right of way to that vehicle. In contrast, a stop sign
requires each driver to stop completely before proceeding, whether or not other traffic is
present. Under the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, the international standard
for the modern sign is an inverted equilateral triangle with a red border and either a white or
yellow background. Particular regulations regarding appearance, installation, and compliance
with the signs vary by some jurisdiction.

Terminology
While give way and yield essentially have the same meaning in this context, many countries
have a clear preference of one term over the other. The following table lists which countries
and territories use which term. This chart is based on official government usage in the
English language and excludes indirect translations from other languages.

"Give way" "Yield"

• Anguilla • Belize
• Antigua and Barbuda • British Virgin Islands
• Australia • Canada
• The Bahamas • Guam
• Bahrain • Iran
• Bangladesh • Ireland
• Barbados • Liberia
• Bermuda • Marshall Islands
• Bhutan • Namibia
• Brunei • Northern Mariana Islands
• Cayman Islands • Palau
• Cyprus • Saudi Arabia
• Dominica • Sierra Leone
• Ethiopia • South Africa
• Falkland Islands • South Korea
• Fiji • Taiwan
• The Gambia • United States
• Ghana • United States Virgin Islands
• Gibraltar
• Grenada
• Guernsey
• Guyana
• Hong Kong SAR
• India
• Isle of Man
• Israel
• Jamaica
• Jersey
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Kiribati
 • Kuwait
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Malta
• Mauritius
• Montserrat
• Nauru
• Nepal
• New Zealand
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Qatar
• Rwanda
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa
• Seychelles
• Singapore
• Solomon Islands
• Sri Lanka
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• Vanuatu
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

History

Blue give-way sign as used in Czechoslovakia, 1938

A black triangle (within the standard down-arrow-shape of stop signs) was a symbol of "stop
for all vehicles" from about 1925 in Germany. The triangular yield sign was used as early as
1937, when it was introduced in Denmark in red and white (matching the Danish flag),[1] in
1938 when it was codified in Czechoslovakia in a blue-white variant without words,[2] and in
1939 in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which adopted the current red-white
variant.[3] In the United States, the first yield sign was erected in 1950 in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
designed by Tulsa police officer Clinton Riggs;[4][5] Riggs invented only the sign, not the rule,
which was already in place.[6] Riggs' original design was shaped like a keystone; later
versions bore the shape of an inverted equilateral triangle in common use today. The inverted
equilateral triangle was then adopted by the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals as
the international standard.