crayon
Americannoun
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a pointed stick or pencil of colored clay, chalk, wax, etc., used for drawing or coloring.
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a drawing in crayons.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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a small stick or pencil of charcoal, wax, clay, or chalk mixed with coloured pigment
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a drawing made with crayons
verb
Other Word Forms
- crayonist noun
Etymology
Origin of crayon
1635–45; < French, equivalent to craie chalk (< Latin crēta clay, chalk) + -on noun suffix
Explanation
A crayon is a colorful stick of wax made for drawing and coloring. It’s also what you do with it. If a kid asks you to crayon with her, bring some paper and your imagination. Young artists often start with crayons, since they’re easy to deal with. Harold and the Purple Crayon is a book about a little boy who draws his own adventures with one purple crayon. But crayons come in hundreds of colors. While the history of drawing with colored wax dates back to ancient Egypt, the crayon we know today has been around — along with the word itself — since the 17th century. It comes from the French crayon, "pencil."
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.
It features 26 paintings, oil sketches and drawings, these last done in Conté crayon, a medium made from powdered graphite and carbon black that allowed deeper blacks and more expressive tonal contrasts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026
“You are smart and kind,” she wrote in pencil, the handwriting surrounded by crayon hearts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 24, 2025
It’s so obvious, it’s practically unconscious — like being told to crayon a great painting and selecting the “Mona Lisa.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2025
The future Queen Elizabeth I was 12 years old at the time — long past the age in which a ghastly crayon drawing of dad would suffice.
From Salon • Dec. 23, 2024
One day he darkened the diminishing bruise with a bit of purple crayon.
From "Wringer" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
