violet

violet — adjective

1. describes something whose colour is a blue-tinted purple, similar to the petals

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

describes something whose colour is a blue-tinted purple, similar to the petals of a violet flower or the evening sky

Example

Quan picked a violet scarf to match her grandmother's favourite dress.

violet used as an attributive adjective before a noun

The sky turned a beautiful violet as the sun went down behind the hills.

Common collocations
  • violet sky
  • violet eyes
  • violet dress
  • violet flower
  • violet fabric
Synonyms
  • purple

    covers a wider colour range, including both reddish and bluish shades; more common in everyday speech

  • lilac

    lighter and more pinkish than violet

  • lavender

    paler and more greyish than violet

Usage Note

More precise than 'purple' — violet describes a colour with noticeably more blue in it. Common in descriptions of flowers, fabrics, and evening skies.

Common Mistakes

The rainbow has purple at the end.
The rainbow has violet at the end.
The innermost band of a rainbow is officially violet, not purple, in the colour spectrum.

violet — noun

Word family

  • ultraviolet
    adjectiveC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Violet and purple are often used interchangeably in everyday speech, but violet refers specifically to a bluish-purple shade named after the flower, while purple covers a much wider range from reddish-purple to bluish-purple. Lilac is a pale, slightly pinkish purple — softer and lighter than violet, also named after a flower. Lavender is a pale, greyish-purple with a cool tone, paler than both violet and lilac. On the colour spectrum, violet is a real spectral colour found in the rainbow, whereas purple is a human-made mixture of red and blue light. For example: 'She chose a violet dress' suggests a bluish-purple hue, while 'a lilac dress' would be much lighter and pinker, and 'a lavender dress' would have a muted, greyish tint.

violet ↗purple ↗lilaclavender ↗

Common collocations

Prepositions

  • in violet
  • shades of violet

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

The word 'violet' came into English through Old French 'violete' from Latin 'viola', which referred to the violet flower. The Latin 'viola' itself may be related to the Greek word 'ion' (ἴον) for the same flower. The colour meaning developed naturally from the flower's distinctive hue, and by the 14th century English speakers were using 'violet' to describe the bluish-purple colour itself.