azure

American  

[azh-er] / ˈæʒ ər /

adjective

1. of or having a light, purplish shade of blue, like that of a clear and unclouded sky.

2. Heraldry. of the tincture or color blue.

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noun

1. the blue of a clear or unclouded sky.

2. a light, purplish blue.

3. Heraldry. the tincture or color blue.

4. the clear, cloudless sky.

azure British  

/ ˈæʒə, ˈeɪ-, -ʒʊə /

noun

1. a deep blue, occasionally somewhat purple, similar to the colour of a clear blue sky

2. poetic a clear blue sky

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adjective

1. of the colour azure; serene

2. (usually postpositive) heraldry of the colour blue

Etymology

Origin of azure

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English asure, from Anglo-French, Old French, ultimately alteration of Arabic al-lazuwar(d) (by misdividing the initial l together with the article), from Persian lāzhuward “lapis lazuli,” perhaps from Sanskrit rājāvarta

Explanation

Looking for a fancier way to describe the deep blue sky on a crisp fall day or the jewel-toned waters of the Caribbean? Try azure. Some people might describe the color azure as sapphire in hue, but in fact there's another gem responsible for this word. At its root, azure comes to us from a French mistranslation of the Arabic word (al)-lazaward, which means “lapis lazuli” — the dazzling deep blue stone that's very common in Afghanistan. The Arabic word actually refers to an area of Turkestan where Marco Polo collected lapis lazuli for friends back home.

Example Sentences

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure and Google’s Cloud businesses combined hold a share of more than 60% of the global cloud software market, according to statista figures, citing Synergy Research Group figures.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 3, 2026

Microsoft, meanwhile, sells access to third-party hardware through its Azure Quantum platform.

From Barron's • Jun. 3, 2026

Following the past two earnings reports, investors were left disappointed by the level of Azure cloud acceleration as well as statistics around Copilot adoption.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 1, 2026

Last November, Microsoft committed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic in exchange for Anthropic committing to purchase $30 billion of Azure compute capacity.

From MarketWatch • May 27, 2026

Azure curtains hung from arches which were shocking pink.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut