Word.ws English Dictionary

blue card

blue card noun: an EU-wide work permit allowing high-skilled non-EU citizens to work and live in any country within the European Union, excluding Denmark and Ireland, which are not subject to the proposal.

blue card: an EU-wide work permit allowing high-skilled non-EU citizens to work and live in any country within...
Image: Bundesministerium des Innern, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

blue card (plural blue cards)

  1. (European-Union) An EU-wide work permit allowing high-skilled non-EU citizens to work and live in any country within the European Union, excluding Denmark and Ireland, which are not subject to the proposal.
    Synonyms:
    Blue European Labour Card
  2. (Australia) An identity card issued with police approval, stating that the person is of suitable character to work near children and young adults.
  3. (US, scouting) An application for pursuing a certain merit badge, which must be signed by a Scout's unit leader and their merit badge counselor before pursuing.
  4. A penalty card that in association football indicates an offense at a lesser level than a yellow card, and has other meanings in bandy, handball, and Quidditch.

Synonyms of blue card

  • Blue European Labour Card

Forms of blue card

pluralblue cards

Origin of blue card

The name of the EU work permit has been inspired by the United States' green card, blue making reference to the main colour of the EU flag. The current card design is not based on blue, however.

Questions about blue card

What does blue card mean?
Blue card means an EU-wide work permit allowing high-skilled non-EU citizens to work and live in any country within the European Union, excluding Denmark and Ireland, which are not subject to the proposal.
What part of speech is blue card?
Blue card is a noun.
What is the plural of blue card?
The plural of blue card is blue cards.

Words near blue card in the dictionary

  1. blue bunchgrass
  2. blue butter
  3. blue button
  4. blue buttons
  5. blue carbon
  6. blue card
  7. blue cards
  8. blue cat
  9. blue catfish
  10. blue catfishes
  11. blue cats

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blue card (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 blue card.ogg.

Cite this entry: “blue card.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blue_card. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.