maroon
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A dark red color with a hint of brown or purple.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
meroonSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
mɚˈun
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
A dark red color with a hint of brown or purple.
A dark purplish-red to dark brownish-red color
An escaped black slave of the Caribbean and the Americas or a descendant of such a person.
A castaway; a person who has been marooned.
adjective
Of a maroon color
Associated with Maroon culture, communities or peoples.
verb
To abandon in a remote, desolate place, as on a desert island.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: a dark red color with a hint of brown or purple.
Used this way, maroon is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use maroon
- “The mutinous sailors were marooned on an island.”verb
- “The travellers were marooned.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Related Words
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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.