red
noun
any of various colors resembling the color of blood; the primary color at one extreme end of the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 610 and 780 nanometers.
Showing results for "red"
- a variation of redd.
red
1 American
[red]
/ rɛd /
noun
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reds
plural
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any of various colors resembling the color of blood; the primary color at one extreme end of the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 610 and 780 nanometers.
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something red.
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Older Slang: Usually Disparaging. Often Red a radical leftist in politics, especially a Communist.
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Informal. red light.
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Informal. red wine.
a glass of red.
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Also called red devil, red bird, red doll. Slang. a capsule of the drug secobarbital, usually red in color.
He was caught with a half dozen reds in the bottom of his pack of cigarettes.
adjective
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redder,
comparative
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reddest
superlative
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of the color red; of or like the color of blood.
a red rose.
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reddish purple in color.
red wine made from purple grapes.
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orange, golden brown, or reddish brown in color.
red hair.
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having distinctive areas or markings of red.
a red robin.
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red eyes from allergies.
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(of the face) flushed or blushing, as from shame.
cheeks red with embarrassment.
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of or indicating a state of financial loss or indebtedness.
the red column in the ledger.
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Politics. relating to, supporting, or belonging to the Republican Party in the United States; Republican.
This is big news in that it flips a red Senate seat to blue.
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Older Slang: Usually Disparaging.
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radically left politically.
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Often Red communist.
Red China.
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Older Use: Disparaging and Offensive. relating to, noting, or characteristic of North American Indian peoples.
idioms
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see red, to become very angry; become enraged.
Snobs make her see red.
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paint the town red. paint.
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in the red, operating at a loss or being in debt (opposed to in the black).
The newspaper strike put many businesses in the red.
red
2
American
[red]
/ rɛd /
verb (used with object)
red,
redding
Red
3
American
[red]
/ rɛd /
noun
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a male or female given name.
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a nickname typically given to someone with red hair.
red-
4
American
-red
5
American
red
1
British
/ rɛd /
noun
-
any of a group of colours, such as that of a ripe tomato or fresh blood, that lie at one end of the visible spectrum, next to orange, and are perceived by the eye when light in the approximate wavelength range 740–620 nanometres falls on the retina. Red is the complementary colour of cyan and forms a set of primary colours with blue and green
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a pigment or dye of or producing these colours
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red cloth or clothing
dressed in red
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a red ball in snooker, billiards, etc
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(in roulette and other gambling games) one of two colours on which players may place even bets, the other being black
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Also called: inner. archery a red ring on a target, between the blue and the gold, scoring seven points
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informal in debit; owing money
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informal to become very angry
adjective
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of the colour red
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reddish in colour or having parts or marks that are reddish
red hair
red deer
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having the face temporarily suffused with blood, being a sign of anger, shame, etc
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(of the complexion) rosy; florid
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(of the eyes) bloodshot
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(of the hands) stained with blood, as after committing murder
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bloody or violent
red revolution
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(of wine) made from black grapes and coloured by their skins
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denoting the highest degree of urgency in an emergency; used by the police and the army and informally (esp in the phrase red alert )
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relating to, supporting, or representing the Republican Party Compare blue
verb
Red
2
British
/ rɛd /
adjective
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Communist, Socialist, or Soviet
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radical, leftist, or revolutionary
noun
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a member or supporter of a Communist or Socialist Party or a national of a state having such a government, esp the former Soviet Union
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a radical, leftist, or revolutionary
red
3
British
/ rɛd /
verb
red
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of red1
First recorded before 900; Middle English red, Old English rēad; cognate with German rot, Dutch rood, Old Norse raudhr, Latin rūfus, ruber, Greek erythrós; see rubella, rufescent, erythro-
Origin of -red5
Middle English -rede, Old English -rǣden
Explanation
The color red is a primary hue found at the end of the spectrum. You might turn red with embarrassment. It also represents financial loss, as in the term "red ink." The word red goes back to before 900, and we can see its roots in the Old English rēad. The idea of red as a signal to stop came in 1849. The color has been associated with rebellion as far back as the 13th Century, and in 1917, the Russian Bolsheviks adopted the color as their symbol. When the movement became the political party of Communism, the members became known as "Reds."
Vocabulary lists containing red
Red
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 5
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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.
See Examples For:
Alejandro, 13, said that the sight of his father’s red and black Monte Carlo parked outside of their family home “just makes me miss him a lot.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
A red tag marks a building as unsafe to enter, and a yellow tag restricts its use.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
The problem involved the settings being different before and after a red flag caused by a crash for Sergio Perez's Cadillac and left drivers complaining of reduced power.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
More red flags began popping up in March 2025 when Swiss police requested information from Binance on Zedcex for a fraud case.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Two’s red eyes shined with a fear so piercing, it sent a shiver up Clare’s spine.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Red Bull's Max Verstappen took his second pole position in a week by beating the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
Verstappen came to Singapore fresh from his and Red Bull's first victory of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and he has continued where he left off.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
After declaring their counter-offensive against the Houthis, Yemen's government claimed to have pushed the fighters out of strategic areas on the Red Sea coast and the port city of Mocha.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Saudi Arabia has also resumed exports from both its Gulf and Red Sea coasts after repairing part of the damage to its East-West pipeline following an attack last month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
She was all decked out in that silly-looking Red Cross uniform and was carrying a tray with a large bottle of castor oil and an empty water glass sitting on it.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
As Mr. Haskell kept watching, a flock of rainbow lorikeets, in their blue-, red-, orange- and green-feathered glory, blew in, “like windblown confetti,” chasing off the figbirds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
The city will prioritize homes for the buyout of the eight homes that have been red- or yellow-tagged — officially deemed unsafe to enter or unlivable, respectively.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2024
Then the Grulla students ran onto the stage to join their friends, and red- and blue-clad mariachis embraced each other joyously.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2022
The ECB also hopes a revised schedule will allow a greater balance between red- and white-ball cricket, produce higher-quality matches, and ease the strain on players' workloads.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2022
A young woman sneezes and the red- haired woman laughs.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Veterans proudly wore the distinctive berets of their old regiments -red for the Colonials recruited overseas, blue for paratroopers of Metropolitan France, green for Foreign Legionnaires.
From Time Magazine Archive
The right map above illustrates that shift, with lighter reds and blues showing much smaller rates of change during that decade.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
More of the shorter blue wavelengths of light are scattered, allowing the yellows, oranges and reds to become more prominent.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
"Today I see a boom in Ukrainian wineries," he said, noting that from full-bodied reds in the south to the crisp whites of the west, "our terroirs and climate are incredibly diverse".
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
A full-page illustration from a 13th-century manuscript is resplendent with lovely reds, greens and blues.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
It was a remarkable bird, as large as a pheasant, but with feathers of all colors, garish reds and yellows and vivid blues.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
As a galaxy moves away, its light is stretched toward redder wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
This is because the sunlight it reflects reaches us through a more dense part of the Earth's atmosphere which scatters blue and violet light, and means only the redder hues reach us.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 2026
As Arizona yielded to New Mexico, the dirt seemed to get redder and the ridges rose to form buttes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025
He got redder and redder in the face, yelling and leading the crowd in chants of “Shame on Sliwa!”
From Slate ● Nov. 5, 2025
When he went to change the bandage today, the cut was redder than he expected.
From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone
It’s an oasis for arts, tasteful wealth, and Southern manners in one of the reddest parts of the country.
From Slate ● May 4, 2026
And for the open seat in Iowa, Democrats seem likely to nominate a two-time Paralympic gold medalist who represents the reddest state house seat held by a Democrat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
Union steamfitter Dan Osborn is running against incumbent Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in Nebraska, one of the country's reddest states — and there are signs that the race could be much closer than expected.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2024
The research team looked for the reddest stars, and found 1,001 pinpoint sources of light, most of them young stars still embedded in their dusty cocoons.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2023
Danny Mitchell—he of the reddest hair in our school—turns around from the seat in front of us, sipping from a juice box.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
As Iran's young Shah came to power 20,000 Russian troops were camped outside Teheran, redding up their tanks for a triumphal entry into the city.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mrs. Truman was redding up her rambling, 80-year-old home at 219 North Delaware St. in Independence.
From Time Magazine Archive
It seems like I can't stay up another ten minutes," Grandma excused herself, "after the field work and redding up and such.
From Across the Fruited Plain by Florence Crannell Means
At ten of the following morning Mrs. Jensen had finished "redding up," as she called it, and had gone out into the yard.
From The Sagebrusher A Story of the West by Emerson Hough
But best of all was to see Grizel "redding up" on a Saturday afternoon.
From Sentimental Tommy The Story of His Boyhood by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
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.
