purple

Meanings

Plural: purples

Noun

a purple color or pigment
of imperial status
- "he was born to the purple"
A colour between red and blue; violet, though often closer to magenta.
Any non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red.
Cloth, or a garment, dyed a purple colour; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple robe or mantle worn by Ancient Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity.
Imperial power.
Any of various species of mollusks from which Tyrian purple dye was obtained, especially the common dog whelk.
The purple haze cultivar of cannabis in the kush family, either pure or mixed with others, or by extension any variety of smoked marijuana.
Purpura.
Earcockle, a disease of wheat.
Any of the species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly Limenitis).
A cardinalate.
Ellipsis of purple drank.
Synonym of snakebite and black.

Verb

become purple
color purple
To turn purple in colour.
To dye purple.
To clothe in purple.
To pursue the opposite gender in inappropriate circumstances, usually of adolescents. (From the metaphor of mixing blue [boys] and pink [girls].)

Adjective Satellite

of a color intermediate between red and blue
excessively elaborate or showily expressed
- "a writer of empurpled literature"
- "many purple passages"
belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler
- "purple tyrant"

Adj

Of a purple hue.
Not predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support.
Mixed between social democrats and liberals.
Imperial; regal.
Blood-red; bloody.
Extravagantly ornate, like purple prose.
Completed in the fastest time so far in a given session.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English purple, purpel, from Old English purpul (“purple”, adjective), taken from Old English purpure (“purple colour”, noun), from Latin purpura (“purple dye, shellfish”), from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish”), perhaps of Semitic origin. Doublet of purpura and purpure.
The sense of "imperial power" is from the wearing of the color purple by emperors and kings.

Synonyms

blue-red, empurple, empurpled, imperial, majestic, over-embellished, purpleness, purplish, purpurate, purpureal, regal, royal, snakebite and black, violet

Antonyms

nonpurple

Scrabble Score: 10

purple is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
purple is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
purple is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

purple is a valid Words With Friends word