purpleadjective
uk/ˈpɜː.pəl/us/ˈpɝː.pəl/purple adjective (COLOUR)
A2 of a dark reddish-blue colour:
purple plums
a dark purple bruise
purple in the face/purple with rage
dark red in the face because of anger
More examples
- Her face was covered in purple blotches.
- He admired the queen's resplendent purple robes.
- Her face was covered in purple blotches.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Common colours
- blue
- bluish
- brown
- brownish
- green
- greenish
- orange
- pink
- pinkish
- purplish
- red
- redden
- reddish
- yellow
- yellowish
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The skin, & skin colour
purple adjective (STYLE)
UK used to describe a piece of writing that is complicated or sounds false because the writer has tried too hard to make the style interesting:
Despite occasional patches of purple prose, the book is mostly clear and incisive.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Complexity
- a paper chase idiom
- advanced
- all-singing
- be more to sth than meets the eye idiom
- bleeding-edge
- compound
- equation
- fancy
- finicky
- high-tech
- intractable
- intricacy
- intricate
- plot
- serpentine
- sophisticated
- tangled
- the plot thickens idiom
- thereby
- wheel
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Difficult to understand
purpleness
noun [ U ] uk/ˈpɜː.pəl.nəs/us/ˈpɝː.pəl.nəs/
purplenoun [ C or U ]
uk/ˈpɜː.pəl/us/ˈpɝː.pəl/A2 a dark reddish-blue colour:
Purple is my favourite colour.
The evening sky was full of purples and reds.
More examples
- I like rich jewel colours, such as purple, blue and green.
- Arrayed before him were 40 schoolchildren in purple and green.
- The evening sky was deep pink, with tints of purple and red in it.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Less common colours
- aquamarine
- azure
- beige
- blood red
- burgundy
- burnish
- cerulean
- chestnut
- earth colour
- ginger
- khaki
- magenta
- maroon
- ochre
- peach
- raw sienna
- ruddy
- russet
- sage green
- violet
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