Red emitting ZnO at the excitation of blue light has been prepared from zinc acetate-urea precursor by sol-gel combustion method. X-ray diffraction studies confirm that the obtained material is in hexagonal wurtzite structure. The photo-luminescent studies reveal that the ZnO is excitable at a wide range of wave length from near UV and blue light. However, at blue light excitation, it shows a strong broad band emission than the near UV excitation, and it starts from 475 nm to 650 nm with an emission maximum of 540 nm. The diffused reflectance spectra show a strong absorption of light from 240 nm to 500 nm. At blue LED excitation (465 nm), it emits a bright broad band red emission with an emission maximum of 625 nm with a CIE chromaticity value of (x = 0.65, y = 0.37). The di band phosphor blend containing red emitting ZnO and yellow emitting YAG:Ce3+ shows warm white light emission at the excitation of blue LED (465 nm) with CIE chromaticity (x = 0.51, y = 0.31) as well as CRI of 96 and CCT of 1986K. All the results indicate that the synthesized ZnO is a promising phosphor material for the applications of WLEDs. •Red emitting ZnO was synthesized by a sol-gel combustion method.•Excitation at blue light shows a strong red emission.•Red emitting ZnO blended with YAG:Ce3+ emits warm white light at the excitation of blue LED.