auburn

CEFRC2

/ˈɔ.bɚn/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Reddish-brown in color, especially describing hair.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    A female given name.

Examples

  • I love your partially-grayed auburn hair.

  • She's got beautiful long auburn hair.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
2
Citations
3
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meaning
  1. Of a reddish-brown colour.

noun

Extra meaning
  1. A dark reddish-brown colour, often used to describe hair colour.

More examples

In context
  • Jane has auburn hair.

  • […]; nor was Miss Wilkinson the ideal: he had often pictured to himself the great violet eyes and the alabaster skin of some lovely girl, and he had thought of himself burying his face in the rippling masses of her auburn hair.

  • I never thought I'd meet a girl like you / Meet a girl like you / With auburn hair and tawny eyes

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Her long blank hair shimmered with reddish-brown highlights in the sunlight.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Early Modern English auburn (“brown, reddish brown”) from Middle English aubourne, abron, abroune, abrune (“light brown, yellowish brown, blond”), alteration (due to conflation with Middle English brun (“brown”)) of earlier auborne (“yellowish-white, flaxen”) from Old French auborne, alborne (“blond, flaxen, off-white”) from Medieval Latin alburnus (“whitish”), from Latin albus (“white”). More at albino, brown.