Word.ws English Dictionary

lurid

UK/ˈl(j)ʊə.ɹɪd//ˈlʊɹɪd/

lurid adjective: pruriently detailed and sensationalistic about something shocking or horrifying, especially with regard to violence or sex.

Adjective

lurid (comparative more lurid, superlative most lurid)

  1. Pruriently detailed and sensationalistic about something shocking or horrifying, especially with regard to violence or sex.
    • The accident was described with lurid detail.
    • Speculating on why publishers rejected it, he wonders whether it was deemed too lurid at the time, especially since Steinbeck was then an unknown author.2021 May 22, Dalya Alberge, “John Steinbeck’s estate urged to let the world read his shunned werewolf novel”, in The Observer
  2. Melodramatic.
  3. Ghastly, pale, wan in appearance.
    • Fierce o'er their beauty blazed the lurid flame;1729, James Thomson, Britannia
    • Wrapt in drifts of lurid smoke / On the misty river-tide.1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 86
  4. Being of a light yellow hue.
    • The lurid lighting of the bar made for a very hazy atmosphere.
  5. Having a brown colour tinged with red.
    • a lurid plant with maroon leaves and pink flowers1976, Ethnology

lurid meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

lurid in Tamil

கவர்ச்சியான, இச்சையைத் தூண்டக்கூடிய, அதிர்ச்சியளிக்கும், பரபரப்பான, வெளிறிய

lurid in Urdu

بھیانک, ڈراؤنا, خوفناک

lurid in Bengali

উগ্র, অতি উজ্জ্বল, লোমহর্ষক, ভয়াবহ

lurid in Malayalam

വിളർത്ത, മഞ്ഞളിച്ച, മങ്ങലായ, വർണ്ണശബളമായ
More languagesFewer languages
lurid in Kannada
ಗಾಢವರ್ಣದ, ಕಡುಬಣ್ಣದ, ಅಸಹಜ ಪ್ರಭೆಯ, ಘೋರ

Examples of lurid in a sentence

  • Lurid stories are a staple of tabloid journalism.
  • For consider the most lurid implication of Gödel's idea – autoinfanticide.
  • The issues of life and death have by the lurid warlight been forced upon our attention.

All 15 example sentences with lurid

Forms of lurid

comparativemore lurid
superlativemost lurid

Origin of lurid

Borrowed from Latin lūridus (“pale yellow, wan”).

Words formed from lurid

Questions about lurid

What does lurid mean?
Lurid means pruriently detailed and sensationalistic about something shocking or horrifying, especially with regard to violence or sex.
What is lurid in Tamil?
Lurid in Tamil is கவர்ச்சியான, இச்சையைத் தூண்டக்கூடிய, அதிர்ச்சியளிக்கும். See Lurid meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lurid?
Lurid is an adjective.
How do you pronounce lurid?
Lurid is pronounced /ˈl(j)ʊə.ɹɪd/ (UK).

Words near lurid in the dictionary

  1. Lurianic
  2. Lurianism
  3. Lurianist
  4. Lurianists
  5. Lurias
  6. lurid
  7. lurider
  8. luridest
  9. luridic acid
  10. luridity
  11. Luridja

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lurid (page history and authors); lurid (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lurid (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Lurid (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lurid (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lurid (Kannada 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: en-us-lurid.ogg.

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