scarlet

Meanings

Plural: scarlets

Noun

a variable color that is vivid red but sometimes with an orange tinge
A brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
Cloth of a scarlet color.

Adjective Satellite

of a color at the end of the color spectrum (next to orange); resembling the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies

Adj

Of a bright red colour.
Sinful or whorish.
Blushing; embarrassed or mortified.

Verb

To dye or tinge (something) with scarlet.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English scarlet, scarlat, borrowed from Old French escarlate (“a type of cloth”), from Medieval Latin scarlatum (“scarlet cloth”), of uncertain origin. This was long thought to derive from Classical Persian سقرلات (saqirlāt, “a warm woollen cloth”), but the Persian word (first attested in the 1290s) is now thought to be from Arabic سِقِلَّات (siqillāt), denoting very expensive, luxury silks dyed scarlet-red using the exceptionally expensive dye, first attested around the ninth century. The most obvious route for the Arabic word siqillāt to have entered the Romance languages would be via the Arabic-speaking Iberian region of al-Andalus, particularly Almería, where kermes was produced extensively; compare especially the dialectal form سِقِرْلَاط (siqirlāṭ). The word then came to be used of woollen cloth dyed with the same dye. The Arabic word may itself be derived from Byzantine Greek σιγιλλᾶτον (sigillâton), from Latin sigillātum (“a type of fabric”, literally “sealed; sealing”) .

Synonyms

blood-red, carmine, cerise, cherry, cherry-red, crimson, orange red, red, reddish, ruby, ruby-red, ruddy, scarlet red, vermilion

Scrabble Score: 9

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

Words With Friends Score: 11

scarlet is a valid Words With Friends word