magenta
noun
magenta
1 American
[muh-jen-tuh]
/ məˈdʒɛn tə /
Magenta
2
American
[muh-jen-tuh]
/ məˈdʒɛn tə /
noun
magenta
British
/ məˈdʒɛntə /
noun
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a deep purplish red that is the complementary colour of green and, with yellow and cyan, forms a set of primary colours
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( as adjective )
a magenta filter
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another name for fuchsin
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of magenta
After Magenta, because the dye was discovered the year of the battle.
Explanation
Magenta is a bright reddish-purple color. If you dye your hair magenta, you'll really stand out in a crowd. Magenta is a shade that's related to colors like fire engine-red and hot pink — it's deep and bold. The color called fuchsia is nearly the same, a mixture of red and blue that's across from green on a color wheel (in other words, green is magenta's complementary color). Magenta-colored dye was first produced in the 1850s, and the color was named after the 1859 "Battle of Magenta" in the Second Italian War of Independence.
Vocabulary lists containing magenta
Pink
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Purple
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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:
Just like the tourists perched above, visitors in the boats below try to get the ultimate snap: the vertical landscape looming over the Yangtze River in shades of electric blue, magenta and red.
From BBC ● May 12, 2026
Bold purple and magenta animations of galloping warriors silhouetted against rustling pines cover entire walls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
Wearing a purple, yellow and magenta colorblocked T-shirt, Okatsuka flashes aqua nails topped off with hot dog charms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2025
In 2022, this magenta state produced a balanced delegation of seven Republicans and seven Democrats, very likely a fair representation of voter preferences.
From Salon ● Dec. 1, 2024
I need to sink my fingers, my hands, into chartreuse, into magenta, into turquoise, into cadmium yellow.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
Magenta Fox, one of the members of the community Ehrenkranz created, has been laid off since 2023.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2025
“Crash” and “Yellowstone” producer Bob Yari chose JT Mollner’s “Strange Darling” — a cannily time-shuffled reworking of “final girl” slasher tropes — to launch his indie film distribution company, Magenta Light.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 3, 2024
“It’s challenging but manageable,” said Magenta Widner, a forestry technician with the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest who works out of the Glacier Public Service Center on Highway 542.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 1, 2023
Patricia Quinn played the original roles of Usherette and Magenta on stage in 1973, and is the owner of the sultry lips from the opening number of the 1975 film adaptation.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2023
The army had not yet repaired its losses; the wounds of Magenta and Solferino were still bleeding.
From Pius IX. And His Time by Æneas MacDonell Dawson
An Oregon State University researcher who made color history in 2009 with a vivid blue pigment has developed durable, reddish magentas inspired by lunar mineralogy and ancient Egyptian chemistry.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024
One Weather Watcher described it as the "best display of aurora I've seen this far south - greens and magentas clearly visible by eye".
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2023
At the mixing station, Andrea Arriola-Pinto swirled light magentas, indigos and dark purples in four separate dishes like an artist mixing paint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2022
"The moodiness of burgundys, magentas, and even deep blues bring in such a fabulous pop of color and beckon the chillier, crisper autumnal days ahead," she notes.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2021
If I don't have emerald greens and magentas and lilacs, I just have Kiko.
From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman
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.
