PURPLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does purple mean? 

• PURPLE (noun)
  The noun PURPLE has 3 senses:

1. a purple color or pigment

2. (in ancient Rome) position of imperial status

3. (Roman Catholic Church) official dress of a cardinal; so named after the Tyrial purple color of the robes

  Familiarity information: PURPLE used as a noun is uncommon.

• PURPLE (adjective)
  The adjective PURPLE has 3 senses:

1. of a color intermediate between red and blue

2. excessively elaborate or showily expressed

3. belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler

  Familiarity information: PURPLE used as an adjective is uncommon.

• PURPLE (verb)
  The verb PURPLE has 2 senses:

1. become purple

2. color purple

  Familiarity information: PURPLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PURPLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A purple color or pigment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

purple; purpleness

Hypernyms ("purple" is a kind of...):

chromatic color; chromatic colour; spectral color; spectral colour (a color that has hue)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "purple"):

lavender (a pale purple color)

mauve (a moderate purple)

reddish purple; royal purple (a shade of purple tinged with red)

reddish blue; violet (a variable color that lies beyond blue in the spectrum)

Derivation:

purple (color purple)

purple (become purple)

purple (of a color intermediate between red and blue)

purpurate (color purple)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(in ancient Rome) position of imperial status

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

purple; the purple

Context example:

he was born to the purple

Hypernyms ("purple" is a kind of...):

nobility; noblesse (the state of being of noble birth)

Derivation:

purple (belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(Roman Catholic Church) official dress of a cardinal; so named after the Tyrial purple color of the robes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

purple; the purple

Hypernyms ("purple" is a kind of...):

ecclesiastical attire; ecclesiastical robe (attire that is appropriate to wear in a church)

Domain category:

Church of Rome; Roman Catholic; Roman Catholic Church; Roman Church; Western Church (the Christian Church based in the Vatican and presided over by a pope and an episcopal hierarchy)

• PURPLE (adjective)

Comparative: purpler   
Superlative: purplest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of a color intermediate between red and blue

Synonyms:

purple; purplish; violet

Similar:

chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)

Derivation:

purple; purpleness (a purple color or pigment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Excessively elaborate or showily expressed

Synonyms:

empurpled; over-embellished; purple

Context example:

an over-embellished story of the fish that got away

Similar:

rhetorical (given to rhetoric, emphasizing style at the expense of thought)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler

Synonyms:

imperial; majestic; purple; regal; royal

Context example:

the royal carriage of a stag's head

Similar:

noble (of or belonging to or constituting the hereditary aristocracy especially as derived from feudal times)

Derivation:

purple ((in ancient Rome) position of imperial status)

• PURPLE (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become purple

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "purple" is one way to...):

color; colour; discolor; discolour (change color, often in an undesired manner)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

purple (a purple color or pigment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Color purple

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

empurple; purple; purpurate

Hypernyms (to "purple" is one way to...):

color; color in; colorise; colorize; colour; colour in; colourise; colourize (add color to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

purple (a purple color or pigment)

 Context examples 

A slave, he had read, had risen to the Roman purple.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The lesions are usually purple and are made of cancer cells, new blood vessels, and blood cells.

(Kaposi sarcoma, NCI Dictionary)

I recognised well that purple face,—those bloated features.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The patches are usually red or purple and are made of cancer cells and blood cells.

(Kaposi's Sarcoma, NIH: National Cancer Institute)

Any spherical shaped bacteria with an oxygen based metabolism and a peptidoglycan rich cell wall that stains dark purple with the Gram staining technique.

(Aerobic Gram Positive Coccus, NCI Thesaurus)

Any rod shaped bacteria that has a peptidoglycan rich cell wall that stains dark purple with the Gram staining technique.

(Gram-Positive Rod, NCI Thesaurus)

Round areas of red-purple reaction in the skin that result after drug exposure; these recur in the same location when the medication is readministered.

(Fixed Drug Eruption, NCI Thesaurus)

Any spherical shaped bacteria that has a peptidoglycan rich cell wall that stains dark purple with the Gram staining technique.

(Gram Positive Coccus, NCI Thesaurus)

Any rod shaped bacteria that does not require oxygen to grow or respirate and has a peptidoglycan rich cell wall that stains dark purple with the Gram staining technique.

(Anaerobic Gram Positive Bacillus, NCI Thesaurus)

“But history tells of slaves who rose to the purple,” I chided.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)