Meaning & use
bluish-purple
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Having a color that is purple with a noticeable tint of blue.
Grammar: Comes before a noun or after a verb: a bluish-purple flower; the sky turned bluish-purple. It is hyphenated before a noun and often open elsewhere.
Patterns
- bluish-purple flowers
- turn bluish-purple
The bruise on her arm turned a deep bluish-purple.
Lavender fields stretched in bluish-purple waves across the hills.
He painted the wall a soft bluish-purple.
noununcountable
A color that is purple with a noticeable tint of blue.
Grammar: Uncountable when talking about the color itself: the walls were painted in bluish-purple.
Patterns
- in bluish-purple
- shade of bluish-purple
The dress was a shimmering bluish-purple in the evening light.
The artist mixed ultramarine and violet to get a bluish-purple.
The sky faded into bluish-purple before it went dark.
Common combinations
- bluish-purple flowers
- Bluish-purple flowers lined the garden path.
- bluish-purple bruise
- A bluish-purple bruise appeared on his shin.
- bluish-purple hue
- The twilight had a bluish-purple hue.
- shade of bluish-purple
- She painted the door a shade of bluish-purple.
- turn bluish-purple
- His lips turned bluish-purple in the cold.
Synonyms and how they differ
- violet
- Violet names a particular purple that leans toward blue, while bluish-purple is a descriptive phrase for a range of shades.
- indigo
- Indigo is a very dark blue-purple, deeper than a general bluish-purple.
- periwinkle
- Periwinkle is a pale, soft blue-purple, whereas bluish-purple can be dark or bright.
- lavender
- Lavender is light and pale, while bluish-purple does not say how light or dark the color is.
Word family
Commonly confused: bluish-purple or purplish-blue?
bluish-purple vs purplish-blue
Purplish-blue is mostly blue with a hint of purple, while bluish-purple is mostly purple with a hint of blue; the last word names the main color.
Practice
A color that is mostly purple but has a hint of blue is best called _____.
Choose one answer.
In compounds like this, the last word is the main color, so bluish-purple is mainly purple. Purplish-blue is mainly blue, and the others contain red or green.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bluish-purple”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.