Word.ws English Dictionary

carmine

/ˈkɑːmaɪn/US/ˈkɑɹmaɪn/

carmine noun: a purplish-red pigment, made from dye obtained from the cochineal beetle; carminic acid or any of its derivatives.

carmine: a purplish-red pigment, made from dye obtained from the cochineal beetle; carminic acid or any of...
Image: VaghinakPetrosyan, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

carmine (countable and uncountable, plural carmines)

  1. A purplish-red pigment, made from dye obtained from the cochineal beetle; carminic acid or any of its derivatives.
    • Cases of cubana salmonellosis in three other states were traced to carmine red, and supplies were called in. […] But authorities have been checking other places for carmine red, knowing that it is a favorite coloring in candy, chewing gum, ice cream, cough syrups and drugs. Manufacturers like to...1967, Time, "The Case of the Dubious Dye," 6 January, 1967, https://web.archive.org/web/20130721101257/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,843172,00.html
  2. A purplish-red colour, resembling that pigment.
    • He wore a great coat in midsummer, being affected with the trembling delirium, and his face was the color of carmine.1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter XIV, in Walden, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co, published 1910, page 347
    • I am alive, I guess, / The branches on my hand / Are full of morning-glory, / And at my fingers' end / The carmine tingles warm,c. 1862, Emily Dickinson, “(please specify the chapter or poem)”, in M[abel] L[oomis] Todd and M[illicent] T[odd] Bingham, editors, Bolts of Melody, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, published 1945, page...

Adjective

carmine

  1. Of the purplish red colour shade carmine.

Proper noun capitalized: Carmine

Carmine (plural Carmines)

  1. A male given name from Italian.
  2. A surname from Italian.

carmine meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

carmine in Hindi

purplish-red pigment
क़िरमिज़ qirmiz, क़िरमिज़ी qirmizī, किरमिजी kirmijī
purplish-red colour
क़िरमिज़ qirmiz, क़िरमिज़ी qirmizī, किरमिजी kirmijī
of the purplish red colour shade carmine
क़िरमिज़ी qirmizī, किरमिजी kirmijī

carmine in Tamil

கார்மின், கார்மைன், இந்திரகோபப்பூச்சியின் நிறம், கசிவப்பு மை, தம்பலப் பூச்சியைப்போல் சிவப்பு நிறமுள்ள

carmine in Urdu

carmine, crimson lake
قرمز qirmiz

carmine in Bengali

গভীর লাল রং
More languagesFewer languages
carmine in Indonesian
merah padam
carmine in Vietnamese
đỏ yên chi

Synonyms of carmine

Forms of carmine

Noun
pluralcarmines
Proper noun
pluralCarmines

Plural of carmine: carmines

Origin of carmine

PIE word *kʷŕ̥mis Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷŕ̥mis Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš Persian کرمست* (*kermest)bor. Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz)bor. Medieval Latin *carminium? French carminder. English carmine From French carmin, from irregular Medieval Latin carminium, itself from Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz, “crimson, kermes”) from Persian *کرمست (*kermest), ultimately from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš (“worm”), plus or with influence from Latin minium. Compare crimson and kermes.

The given name is borrowed from Italian Carmine.

Words formed from carmine

Phrases with carmine

Questions about carmine

What does carmine mean?
Carmine means a purplish-red pigment, made from dye obtained from the cochineal beetle; carminic acid or any of its derivatives.
What is carmine in Hindi?
Carmine in Hindi is क़िरमिज़ (qirmiz), क़िरमिज़ी (qirmizī), किरमिजी (kirmijī). See Carmine meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is carmine?
Carmine can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce carmine?
Carmine is pronounced /ˈkɑːmaɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of carmine?
The plural of carmine is carmines.

Words near carmine in the dictionary

  1. carminate
  2. carminated
  3. carminates
  4. carminative
  5. carminatives
  6. carmine
  7. carmine red
  8. carmine reds
  9. carmined
  10. carmines
  11. carminic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carmine (page history and authors); Carmine (page history and authors); carmine (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); قرمز (Urdu) (page history and authors); carmine (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-carmine.wav.

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