To greenlight a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project.^[1] In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to greenlight something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to pre-production and principal photography.

The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead."

The power to greenlight a project is generally reserved to those in a project or financial management role within an organization. The process of taking a project from pitch to greenlight formed the basis of a successful reality TV show titled Project Greenlight.^[2] The term has found its way into general business and military culture as a result of its use in the film industry.

In Organized Crime, Gang and Prison slang to greenlight a person is to authorize the assassination of this person. An example of this use of the word can be found in the movie Felon spoken by John Smith, the character played by Val Kilmer.

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