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• hue
  hue

  noun

  a gradation or variety of a color; tint.
• Hué
  Hué

  noun

  a seaport in central Vietnam: former capital of Annam.

hue

¹ American  

[hyoo, yoo] / hyu, yu /

noun

1. a gradation or variety of a color; tint.

   pale hues.

2. the property of light by which the color of an object is classified as red, blue, green, or yellow in reference to the spectrum.

3. color.

   all the hues of the rainbow.

4. form or appearance.

5. complexion.

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hue ² American  

[hyoo] / hyu /

noun

1. outcry, as of pursuers; clamor.

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Hué ³ American  

[hwey] / ʰweɪ /

noun

1. a seaport in central Vietnam: former capital of Annam.

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Hué ¹ British  

/ ɥe /

noun

1. a port in central Vietnam, on the delta of the Hué River near the South China Sea: former capital of the kingdom of Annam, of French Indochina (1883–1946), and of Central Vietnam (1946–54). Pop: 377 000 (2005 est)

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hue ² British  

/ hjuː /

noun

1. the attribute of colour that enables an observer to classify it as red, green, blue, purple, etc, and excludes white, black, and shades of grey See also colour

2. a shade of a colour

3. aspect; complexion

   a different hue on matters

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hue Scientific  

/ hyo̅o̅ /

1. The property of colors by which they are seen as ranging from red through orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, as determined by the dominant wavelength of the light.

2. Compare saturation value

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Other Word Forms

• hueless
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of hue¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English hewe, Old English hīw “appearance, color, form”; cognate with Old Norse hȳ “bird's down,” Swedish hy “complexion, skin,” Gothic hiwi “appearance, form”; akin to Old English hār “gray” ( see hoar)

Origin of hue²

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English hu(e), from Middle French: “a hoot, outcry” (whence huer “to hoot, cry out”)

Explanation

Green, orange, yellow, and blue — each of these is a hue, a color or a shade that's true. A rainbow shows the melting of one hue into another, from red to violet, and all shades in between. The noun hue means both a color and a shade of a color. Green is a hue, and turquoise is a hue of both green and blue. Most of the time the word hue refers to colors, but sometimes it's used for shades of meaning or even the tone of a person's face, as in "The speech had a hue of politics — disguised with humor — that turned the mayor's face from a pale hue to red as he laughed."

Example Sentences

Many of the more than 21,000 people who were evacuated from the flood zone began to return home as water receded in the central coastal city of Hue on Wednesday morning.

From Barron's • Oct. 29, 2025

Hue Park and Will Aronson took home the Tony for best book of a musical.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2025

Will Aronson and Hue Park’s “Maybe Happy Ending” was the evening’s big winner, picking up six Tonys, including best musical.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2025

From 2011 to 2021, WWF-Viet Nam and local authorities removed close to 120,000 snares from the contiguous Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam Saola Nature Reserves in Central Viet Nam.

From Science Daily • Jun. 3, 2024

Only a few days after Hue fell, the Communists had completely surrounded Da Nang, cutting off the main road south to Saigon.

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge

Related Words

• complexion
• tinge
• tint
• tone