Purple Meaning
/ˈpɜː.pl̩/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA colour between red and blue; violet, though often closer to magenta.
nounAny non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red.
Sentence Examples
The color is purple rather than pink.
Aya likes intense colors, such as hot pink, electric blue and deep purple.
Her hair was dyed a bright shade of purple.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The artist mixed red and blue to create a beautiful shade of ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The emperor wore robes of deep ____, a color historically associated with royalty and power.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English purple, purpel, from Old English purpul (“purple”, adjective), taken from Old English purpure (“purple colour”, noun), from Latin purpura (“purple dye, shellfish”), from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish”), perhaps of Semitic origin. Doublet of purpura and purpure. The sense of "imperial power" is from the wearing of the color purple by emperors and kings.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Arraying with reflected Purple and Gold / The Clouds that on his Weſtern Throne attend."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 596–597:
"Thy head as Carmelus: and the heares of thy head as a kings purple tyed to cundite pipes."
— 1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Laurence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Canticle of Canticles 7:5, page 341:
"When we picture to ourselves his [Napoleon’s] dawning military genius at Toulon—his daring and decided politics in the storms of the Revolution—his Cæsarian ambition in assuming the purple—[…]"
— 1829 March, “Napoleon a Sainte Helene. Opinion d’un Medecin sur la Maladie de l’Empereur Napoleon, et sur la Cause de sa Mort; offerte a son Fils, au Jour de sa Majorite. Par S. Hereau, […]”, in James Johnson, editor, The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, volume X, number XX, London: […] S. Highley, […], page 434:
"The immediate successors of Augustus indulged in appalling cruelties towards senators and towards possible competitors for the purple."
— 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29:
""Sure, some purple Owlsley.""
— 2005, Tipi Paul, Wanna Smoke?: The Adventures of a Storyteller, page 14:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The artist mixed red and blue to create a beautiful shade of ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The emperor wore robes of deep ____, a color historically associated with royalty and power.