scarlet
Americannoun
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scarlets
plural
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a bright-red color inclining toward orange.
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cloth or clothing of this color.
adjective
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of the color scarlet.
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flagrantly offensive.
Their sins were scarlet.
noun
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a vivid red colour, sometimes with an orange tinge
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cloth or clothing of this colour
adjective
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of the colour scarlet
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sinful or immoral, esp unchaste
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of scarlet
1200–50; Middle English < Old French escarlate < Medieval Latin scarlata, scarletum, perhaps < Arabic saqirlāṭ, siqillāṭ < Medieval Greek sigillátos < Latin sigillātus decorated with patterns in relief; see sigillate
Explanation
Use the adjective scarlet to describe things that are a deep, rich red color, like a robin's breast or a wild strawberry. Some things are such a vivid shade that red doesn't seem to be quite accurate — scarlet is the perfect word to use for them. Blood is scarlet, and so are rubies and ripe cherries and some brilliant red roses. You can also use scarlet as a noun, to talk about the color itself: "My favorite painter uses a lot of scarlet." In the mid-13th century, scarlet simply meant "rich cloth," which might have been the color scarlet or some other color entirely.
Vocabulary lists containing scarlet
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:
"A hit list of the haves and the have-nots - a scarlet letter," Hanks said during a heated public meeting at City Hall on Tuesday.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
From the main mast, a square scarlet sail hung in a style that was already archaic by America’s founding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
In the film, Huppert's countess character returns to life in a scarlet red funeral barge sailing into in the Seegrotte, an underground Viennese lake popular with tourists.
From Barron's ● Feb. 18, 2026
Peggy and Dorothy discovered the truth, only to learn that the little boy had since died of scarlet fever.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025
"How much did your mother tell you to take for the goat?" asked the woman in the scarlet kirtle.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
As passing days begin to ignite the scarlets and the golds on treetops or twigs, Friday helped show how much their flame owes to the autumn sunshine.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2022
Many species of the small, tropical bird sport deep black feathers and splashes of eye-catching color — electric yellows, traffic-cone oranges and nearly neon scarlets.
From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2021
“His brush is loaded with lots of oil paint in scarlets and pale pinks. You get a sense of the movement, texture and lusciousness of the painted surface.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2016
The scarlets, cobalts and chrome yellows are intense in some passages, depleted in others.
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2010
She imagines her granddaughter pale, gliding through paleness, malnourished and cold without the food of scarlets and greens.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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.
