azure

[ azh-er ]
See synonyms for: azureazures on Thesaurus.com

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.

noun
  1. the blue of a clear or unclouded sky.

  2. a light, purplish blue.

  1. Heraldry. the tincture or color blue.

  2. the clear, cloudless sky.

Origin of azure

1
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

Words Nearby azure

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use azure in a sentence

  • Softly tremble in the delicate blue mist and the azure spirals from his old Virginia clay—the domes of a sea-bathed city.

  • In his verses he was frequently led from the mists and mud of Paris to the countries of light, azure, and perfume.

    Charles Baudelaire, His Life | Thophile Gautier
  • The filmy, azure angles at the tip were straining to part, held together by just one drop of light.

    The Dragon Painter | Mary McNeil Fenollosa
  • It is in the most beautiful azure depths of the limpid water that this hideous, voracious polyp delights.

    Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo
  • Gilt and scarlet and azure the palaces rose in every direction, under a wilderness of fluttering flags.

    In Search of the Unknown | Robert W. Chambers

British Dictionary definitions for azure

azure

/ (ˈæʒə, -ʒʊə, ˈeɪ-) /


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

  2. poetic a clear blue sky

adjective
  1. of the colour azure; serene

  2. (usually postpositive) heraldry of the colour blue

Origin of azure

1
C14: from Old French azur, from Old Spanish, from Arabic lāzaward lapis lazuli, from Persian lāzhuward

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012