sienna
Americannoun
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a ferruginous earth used as a yellowish-brown pigment raw sienna or, after roasting in a furnace, as a reddish-brown pigment burnt sienna.
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the color of such a pigment.
noun
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a natural earth containing ferric oxide used as a yellowish-brown pigment when untreated ( raw sienna ) or a reddish-brown pigment when roasted ( burnt sienna )
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the colour of this pigment See also burnt sienna
Etymology
Origin of sienna
1750–60; < Italian ( terra di ) Sien ( n ) a (earth of ) Siena
Explanation
Sienna is the color of Italian dirt. It’s named after Sienna, Italy, where Renaissance painters first got the earthy pigment. It ranges from the yellowish raw sienna like sand, or the darker brownish red of burnt sienna. You can draw a sienna cow with a reddish-brown crayon, or describe your grandparents' carpet as sienna. Artists also use sienna for the natural pigment that contains iron oxide. Sienna is yellowish-brown, and it takes on a darker, redder tint when it's heated. It's a common pigment in oil paints and has been used since the sixteenth century, when it was produced in the Italian city of Sienna.
Vocabulary lists containing sienna
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The progression of the façades from warm rose to pink-cream to mauve-green is knit together by the blues and sienna of the windows, anchored by the staccato pink and green water below.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 11, 2025
The soundtrack’s low rumble swells into a roar, while a quick dusty glimpse of desert floor in glowing raw sienna slams the boundless sky into the circumscribed earth.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023
Like most colors, it has a long and fascinating history, from umber in prehistoric cave paintings to sepia ink used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to raw sienna used by Renaissance artists.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 20, 2022
The décor is a crucial step up from Ikea — anodyne good taste, in shades of sienna and blue-gray, with a pop of burnt orange.
From New York Times • Aug. 2, 2022
He was darker than Mrs. Baylor—darker than a burnt sienna crayon.
From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
