adjective
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of, relating to, or resembling flax
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of a soft yellow colour
flaxen hair
Etymology
Origin of flaxen
Explanation
Use the adjective flaxen to describe things that are a pale golden-yellow color, like your brother's flaxen hair or flaxen wheat fields glowing in the summer sun. There's a literary history of using flaxen for a young girl's blonde hair that dates back at least as far as the 1500s. This word literally means "made of flax" or "the color of flax." Flax is a plant used to make a linen-like material also called flax, and flaxen originally described things made of this fabric. Today it's mainly used for hair or horses — the flaxen gene causes chestnut-colored horses to have blond tails.
Vocabulary lists containing flaxen
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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The Downstairs Girl
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The Time Machine
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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.
A soft-faced teenage boy with flaxen hair playing the upright piano while a small orbit of youth-group girls gathered nearby.
From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026
In recent years, he has hidden these behind a straggly white mustache and goatee and has grown his flaxen hair down to his shoulders.
From New York Times • May 12, 2020
Hair 13: The shining gleaming streaming flaxen waxen goes bald.
From Washington Post • Nov. 1, 2018
He has the mighty flaxen hair of the Norse God of Thunder.
From Golf Digest • Oct. 30, 2018
Round cheeks and gray eyes and flaxen hair.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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.
