PURPLE Definition & Meaning

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purple

[ pur-puhl ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.
cloth or clothing of this hue, especially as formerly worn distinctively by persons of imperial, royal, or other high rank.
the rank or office of a cardinal.
the office of a bishop.
imperial, regal, or princely rank or position.
deep red; crimson.
any of several nymphalid butterflies, as Basilarchia astyanax red-spotted purple, having blackish wings spotted with red, or Basilarchia arthemis banded purple, or white admiral, having brown wings banded with white.

adjective

purpler, purplest.

of the color purple.
imperial, regal, or princely.
brilliant or showy.
full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric:
a purple passage in a novel.
profane or shocking, as language.
relating to or noting political or ideological diversity:
purple politics; ideologically purple areas of the country.

verb (used with or without object)

purpled, purpling.

to make or become purple.

purple

/ ˈ��ɜː��ə�� /

noun

any of various colours with a hue lying between red and blue and often highly saturated; a nonspectral colour
a dye or pigment producing such a colour
cloth of this colour, often used to symbolize royalty or nobility
the purple
high rank; nobility
1. the official robe of a cardinal
2. the rank, office, or authority of a cardinal as signified by this
the purple
bishops collectively

adjective

of the colour purple
(of writing) excessively elaborate or full of imagery
purple prose
noble or royal

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Derived Forms

ˈ��ܰ��Ա��, noun
ˈ��ܰ��, adjective
ˈ��ܰ��, adjective

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Other �y��vlog Forms

��ܰ�p��·�Ա�� noun

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of purple¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English purpel (noun and adjective), Old English purple (adjective), variant of purpure, from Latin purpura “kind of shellfish yielding purple dye, the dye, cloth so dyed,” from Greek ��ǰ��ý��; purpure, porphyry

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of purple¹

Old English, from Latin purpura purple dye, from Greek porphura the purple fish ( Murex )

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Idioms and Phrases

born in / to the purple, of royal or exalted birth:
Those born to the purple are destined to live in the public eye.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Amid the ensuing gore, played for cheap chuckles, Ridley is splashed with the unicorn’s purple blood, which clears up her acne and gives Elliot perfect eyesight.

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Carole Williams said her husband John had been visited by community nurses at their home in Cayton, North Yorkshire, just hours before his leg turned purple.

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Bruce and Gill host the class once a year in the springtime, when their wisteria vines bloom with purple flowers.

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One work, a deep purple monochrome rising behind a vivid orange bottle, graced the sixth cover of the new Artforum magazine.

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But the Leopold clan sees a new empire of wonder-drug riches by harvesting its curative power, including the unicorn’s purple, iridescent blood and the mysterious properties of its occasionally glowing horn.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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