scarlet
Syllables: scar·let/ˈskɑːlɪt/US/ˈskɑɹlɪt/
scarlet noun: a brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
Noun
scarlet (countable and uncountable, plural scarlets)
- A brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
- Biblical criteria of sexual seductiveness include a white skin, black hair, or henna-dyed, scarlet lips, a prominent nose, rosy temples, long straight neck, firm breasts, round thighs, an erect posture.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 219
- Cloth of a scarlet color.
- All her household are clothed with scarlet.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 31:21
Adjective
scarlet (comparative more scarlet, superlative most scarlet)
- Of a bright red colour.
- Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168
- Sinful or whorish.
- a scarlet woman
- Blushing; embarrassed or mortified.
- He signed off our correspondence, “Well thank God for facemasks, cos I’m scarlet”.26 October 2021, Aisling Marron, I brought the baby to her first vaccinations. Her look said: why have you betrayed me?, The Irish Times
Verb
scarlet (third-person singular simple present scarlets, present participle scarleting, simple past and past participle scarleted)
Proper noun capitalized: Scarlet
Scarlet (plural Scarlets)
- A female given name from English, a modern variant of Scarlett, or from the common noun scarlet.
- It's not just Ribbons either. It's - get ready for this - Scarlet Ribbons. From an old Harry Belafonte record my mom had when she was about ten or something. When she grew up she was going to have a little girl and call her Scarlet Ribbons.1979, Joseph Hansen, Skinflick, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, →ISBN, page 96
scarlet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam
scarlet in Hindi
- colour
- क़िरमिज़ qirmiz, क़िरमिज़ी qirmizī
scarlet in Tamil
- நல்ல சிவப்பு, ஒண்சிவப்பு வண்ணமான, செங்காய்ச்சல்
scarlet in Telugu
- colour
- ఎర్రని errani
scarlet in Malayalam
- കടുംചുവപ്പ്, കടുംചുവപ്പു തുണി, വസ്ത്രം, ശോണമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- scarlet in Kannada
- ಕಡುಕೆಂಪು ಬಣ್ಣದ, ಸಿಂದೂರ ವರ್ಣದ, ತೊಗರು, ಕಡುಕೆಂಪು
- scarlet in Sanskrit
- मञ्जिष्ठ mañjiṣṭha
- scarlet in Nepali
- स्कार्लेट, स्कार्लेटिङ, स्कार्लेट गर्न
- scarlet in Tagalog
- iskarlata, eskarlata
- scarlet in Arabic
- سِقِلَّاتِيّ siqillātiyy, قِرْمِزِيّ qirmiziyy, سِقِلَّاط siqillāṭ, سِقِلَّات siqillāt
- scarlet in Malay
- merah, merah saga
- scarlet in Indonesian
- merah tua
- scarlet in Persian
- اشکرلاط eškarlât, سقرلات saqerlât, آل âl
- scarlet in Vietnamese
- đỏ
Examples of scarlet in a sentence
- Red and blue are different colors, but two shades of scarlet are different tints.
- Bright's disease is often secondary to scarlet fever.
- The gleam of his silver mail was as brilliant as the scarlet cloak rippling from his shoulders.
Synonyms of scarlet
Forms of scarlet
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scarlets |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more scarlet |
| superlative | most scarlet |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scarlets |
| present participle | scarleting |
| past participle | scarleted |
| past | scarleted |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Scarlets |
Origin of scarlet
From Middle English scarlet, scarlat, borrowed from Old French escarlate (“a type of cloth”), from Medieval Latin scarlātum (“scarlet cloth”), of uncertain origin. This was long thought to derive from Classical Persian سقرلات (saqirlāt, “a warm woollen cloth”), but the Persian word (first attested in the 1290s) is now thought to be from Arabic سِقِلَّات (siqillāt), denoting very expensive, luxury silks dyed scarlet-red using the exceptionally expensive dye, first attested around the ninth century. The most obvious route for the Arabic word siqillāt to have entered the Romance languages would be via the Arabic-speaking Iberian region of al-Andalus, particularly Almería, where kermes was produced extensively; compare especially the dialectal form سِقِرْلَاط (siqirlāṭ). The word then came to be used of woollen cloth dyed with the same dye. The Arabic word may itself be derived from Byzantine Greek σιγιλλᾶτον (sigillâton), from Latin sigillātum (“a type of fabric”, literally “sealed; sealing”) .
Words formed from scarlet
- Scarlett
- scarletberry
- scarleteer
- scarletish
- scarlet-like
- scarletly
- scarletness
- scarletwork
- scarlety
- Gobelin scarlet
- iodine scarlet
- scarlet admiral
- scarlet banana
- scarlet-bean
- scarlet bean
- scarlet-bodied wasp moth
- scarlet-browed tanager
- scarlet buglar
- scarlet bugler
- scarlet-collar
- scarlet eggplant
- scarlet fever
- scarlet geranium
- scarlet hat
- scarlet honeycreeper
- scarlet honeyeater
- scarlet honeysuckle
- scarlet ibis
- scarlet letter
- scarlet lightning
- scarlet lily beetle
- scarlet macaw
- scarlet milkweed
- scarlet minivet
- scarlet myzomela
- scarlet oak
- scarlet percher
- scarlet pimpernel
- scarlet queening
- scarlet rosefinch
- scarlet runner
- scarlet runner bean
- scarlet shiner
- scarlet snake
- scarlet tanager
- scarlet tiger
- scarlet woman
Phrases with scarlet
- Scarlet Day
- scarlet red
- Scarlet Days
- scarlet oaks
- scarlet reds
- scarlet beans
- scarlet berry
- scarlet women
- scarlet fevers
- scarlet ibises
- scarlet macaws
- Scarlet O'Hara
20 more phrasesFewer phrases
- scarlet snakes
- scarlet tigers
- scarlet bananas
- scarlet letters
- scarlet runners
- scarlet shiners
- scarlet admirals
- scarlet minivets
- scarlet perchers
- scarlet tanagers
- scarlet eggplants
- scarlet geraniums
- scarlet queenings
- scarlet lightnings
- scarlet pimpernels
- scarlet rosefinches
- scarlet lily beetles
- scarlet runner beans
- scarlet honeycreepers
- miniature scarlet fever
Words that rhyme with scarlet
Questions about scarlet
- What does scarlet mean?
- Scarlet means a brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
- What is scarlet in Hindi?
- Scarlet in Hindi is क़िरमिज़ (qirmiz), क़िरमिज़ी (qirmizī). See Scarlet meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is scarlet?
- Scarlet can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce scarlet?
- Scarlet is pronounced /ˈskɑɹlɪt/ (US).
- What is the plural of scarlet?
- The plural of scarlet is scarlets.
Words near scarlet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scarlet (page history and authors); Scarlet (page history and authors); scarlet (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scarlet (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scarlet (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scarlet (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scarlet.wav.
Cite this entry: “scarlet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scarlet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.