purple

[ pur-puhl ]

noun

1. any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.
2. cloth or clothing of this hue, especially as formerly worn distinctively by persons of imperial, royal, or other high rank.
3. the rank or office of a cardinal.
4. the office of a bishop.
5. imperial, regal, or princely rank or position.
6. deep red; crimson.
7. any of several nymphalid butterflies, as Basilarchia astyanax red-spotted purple, having blackish wings spotted with red, or Basilarchia arthemis banded purple, or white admiral, having brown wings banded with white.

adjective

, pur·pler, pur·plest.

1. of the color purple.
2. imperial, regal, or princely.
3. brilliant or showy.
4. full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric:

   a purple passage in a novel.

5. profane or shocking, as language.
6. relating to or noting political or ideological diversity:

   purple politics; ideologically purple areas of the country.

verb (used with or without object)

, pur·pled, pur·pling.

1. to make or become purple.

purple

/ ˈpɜːpəl /

noun

1. any of various colours with a hue lying between red and blue and often highly saturated; a nonspectral colour
2. a dye or pigment producing such a colour
3. cloth of this colour, often used to symbolize royalty or nobility
4. the purple
   high rank; nobility
5. 1. the official robe of a cardinal
   2. the rank, office, or authority of a cardinal as signified by this
6. the purple
   bishops collectively

adjective

1. of the colour purple
2. (of writing) excessively elaborate or full of imagery

   purple prose

3. noble or royal

Derived Forms

• ˈpurpleness, noun
• ˈpurplish, adjective
• ˈpurply, adjective

Other Words From

• purple·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of purple¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English purpel (noun and adjective), Old English purple (adjective), variant of purpure, from Latin purpura “kind of shellfish yielding purple dye, the dye, cloth so dyed,” from Greek porphýra; purpure, porphyry

Word History and Origins

Origin of purple¹

Old English, from Latin purpura purple dye, from Greek porphura the purple fish ( Murex )

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. born in / to the purple, of royal or exalted birth:

   Those born to the purple are destined to live in the public eye.

Example Sentences

Black and purple bunting went up over the doorway at the 84th Precinct stationhouse where Ramos and Liu had been assigned.

From The Daily Beast

She says that every film she makes, she has to hit someone—The Color Purple, The Butler, and Selma.

From The Daily Beast

Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah will never come anywhere close to being purple.

From The Daily Beast

Here and there, sparingly, one of the dolls might be purple or green: “Rainbow Piets,” they call them.

From The Daily Beast

Worse, when Richman woke up the next morning, her entire ear was purple.

From The Daily Beast

A small book, bound in full purple calf, lay half hidden in a nest of fine tissue paper on the dressing-table.

From Project Gutenberg

Its pages are filled with the purple gowns of kings and the scarlet trappings of the warrior.

From Project Gutenberg

She was in a soiled dressing gown of purple flannel, with several of the buttons off.

From Project Gutenberg

Wright's stain gives the nucleus a deep purple color and the cytoplasm a pale robin's-egg blue in typical cells.

From Project Gutenberg

Malarial parasites stain characteristically: the cytoplasm, sky-blue; the chromatin, reddish-purple.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• color
• lavender
• lilac
• mauve
• periwinkle
• plum
• violet