pink

pink — adjective

1. having the soft, washed-out red colour you get by mixing white into red — the ki

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

having the soft, washed-out red colour you get by mixing white into red — the kind of tone seen on roses, bubble gum, and many baby blankets.

Example

Lina wore a pink dress to her cousin's birthday party.

attributive: pink + [clothing item]

The cherry trees in the park are covered with soft pink flowers.

collocation: pink flowers / pink blossoms

Common collocations
  • pink dress
  • pink flowers
  • bright pink
  • pale pink
  • turn pink
  • pink ribbon
Synonyms
  • rosy

    more literary; often describes cheeks or healthy skin

  • salmon

    a specific orange-pink shade, used for fabric and food

  • rose

    deeper, more elegant pink, common in design contexts

Usage Note

Used both attributively (pink dress) and predicatively (her face went pink). Often paired with intensifiers like bright, hot, pale, or dusty to specify the shade.

Common Mistakes

She wore a pinkish dress' (when meaning a clear pink).
She wore a pink dress.
'pinkish' suggests only a hint of pink, not the full colour.

2. describing a person, party, or idea that leans a little towards socialism or the

2.adjective
Definition

describing a person, party, or idea that leans a little towards socialism or the political left, but not strongly so.

Example

The newspaper accused the senator of holding pink views on health care.

attributive: pink + [political noun]

Critics dismissed the new tax plan as a pink experiment dressed up as reform.

often appears in critical or dismissive contexts

Common collocations
  • pink views
  • pink politics
  • slightly pink
Synonyms
  • left-leaning

    neutral and current; safer in serious writing

  • socialistic

    more formal; describes ideas closer to socialism

Antonyms

Usage Note

Often used by opponents to suggest mild socialist leanings without going as far as 'red' (communist). Mostly informal and somewhat dated; can sound dismissive or mocking.

Common Mistakes

He is a strong pink communist.
He has slightly pink views, but he is not a communist.
'pink' implies only mild left-leaning, not full communism.

3. linked to the gay community — to its culture, spending power, or media — most of

3.adjective
Definition

linked to the gay community — to its culture, spending power, or media — most often used in marketing and journalism, since pink has long been a symbol of LGBT identity.

Example

The hotel chain is keen to attract more of the pink pound from London tourists.

fixed expression: the pink pound / pink dollar (gay spending power)

Carlos writes a column for one of the city's most popular pink magazines.

attributive: pink + [media noun]

Common collocations
  • pink pound
  • pink dollar
  • pink press
  • pink magazine
  • pink venue
Synonyms
  • gay

    the standard adjective for individual people and identity

  • LGBT

    umbrella term covering broader queer community

Usage Note

Almost always appears in fixed marketing or media phrases (pink pound, pink press, pink venue). Avoid as a general adjective for individual people; use 'gay' or 'LGBT' instead.

Common Mistakes

My uncle is a pink man.
My uncle is gay.
'pink' describes products, money, or media linked to gay culture, not individual people.

pink — noun

pink — verb

Word family

  • pinkish
    adjectiveB2
  • pinky
    nounB2
  • pinkness
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words name shades on the red-and-white spectrum, but they fit different contexts. Pink is the everyday, neutral name for the colour, useful from baby clothes to bubble gum to flower petals. Rosy is more literary and warmer; it usually describes living things, especially healthy cheeks or a hopeful future ('rosy cheeks', 'a rosy outlook'), and rarely names a paint colour. Salmon is a specific orange-tinged pink and works best for fabric, walls, or food — 'a salmon shirt' or 'salmon-coloured curtains' sound natural; 'salmon flowers' does not. Rose is deeper and more elegant, common in design and fashion ('dusty rose curtains'), but unusual when describing skin. So you might say 'Maya wore a pink dress, her cheeks rosy from the wind' and still mean two clearly different shades.

pink ↗rosy ↗salmon ↗rose

Common collocations

Nouns

  • pink dress
  • pink ribbon
  • pink flowers
  • pink lipstick
  • pink cheeks
  • pink ribbon campaign

Adverbs

  • bright pink
  • pale pink
  • hot pink
  • dusty pink
  • shocking pink

Phrases

  • dressed in pink
  • shade of pink
  • go pink
  • turn pink

Prepositions

  • in pink
  • from pink to red

Etymology

Middle EnglishEnglish

The colour name 'pink' first appeared in English in the late 1600s, but it came from the flower already called a 'pink' — a small carnation-family bloom whose name had been used in English since the 1500s. The flower's name probably came from the verb 'to pink', meaning to cut a zigzag or notched edge, because the flower's petals look as if they were trimmed with pinking scissors. Once the soft red of these petals became a recognised colour, the word jumped from flower to colour, and the older flower meaning slowly faded into garden vocabulary.