blue
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
The color of a clear daytime sky.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
blooIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblu
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The color of a clear daytime sky.
Anything coloured blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in colour.
A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
countable and uncountable
The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea; the colour midway between green and violet in the visible spectrum and one of the primary additive colours.
Blue color or pigment; resembling the color of the clear sky in the daytime
“He had eyes of bright blue.”
Any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue
adjective
Having a bluish or purplish shade to the skin due to a lack of oxygen to the normally deep-red red blood cells; cyanotic.
of a dog or cat
Having a coat of fur of a slaty gray shade.
informal
Risqué; obscene; profane; pornographic.
informal
Depressed, melancholic, sad.
of a flame
Pale, without redness or glare.
of steak
Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
verb
intransitiveAustraliaslang
To fight, brawl, or argue.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: the color of a clear daytime sky.
Used this way, blue is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Clear and precise
- Usage feel
- Precise and approving
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use blue
- “He had eyes of bright blue.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A type of folksong that originated among Black Americans at the beginning of the 20th century.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A large catfish of the Mississippi valley.
Hairy South African or Australian subshrub that has daisylike flowers with blue rays.
A large catfish of the Mississippi valley.
Common western lizard.
Bluish-grey North American hawk having a darting flight.
A coarse prickly European weed with spikes of blue flowers.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Fruit-eating mostly brilliant blue songbird of the East Indies.
Low-growing annual herb of southwestern United States (Texas) having silky foliage and blue flowers.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.