Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use purple in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Purple means a colour between red and blue; violet, though often closer to magenta. Example: “The fact that it is purple militates against it being a trout.”

Examples of purple by meaning

nounCloth, or a garment, dyed a purple colour; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority...

  • to put on the imperial purple

nounImperial power.

  • The immediate successors of Augustus indulged in appalling cruelties towards senators and towards possible competitors for the purple.1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29

nounThe purple haze cultivar of cannabis in the kush family, either pure or mixed with others, or by extension any variety...

  • "Sure, some purple Owlsley."2005, Tipi Paul, Wanna Smoke?: The Adventures of a Storyteller, page 14
  • “Purple smoke is no joke.2010, Mark Arax, West of the West, page 221
  • She preferred to smoke some good purple, but getting high wasn't an option.2011, Danielle Santiago, Allure of the Game, page 148

nounAny of the species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly...

  • the banded purple

adjectiveNot predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support.

  • In the end, Nevada remained the quintessential purple state.2010, Hal K. Rothman, The Making of Modern Nevada, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 162
  • Friedlander conceived it, Reason was neither strictly right-wing libertarian nor strictly left — in modern parlance, neither red nor blue but a purple amalgam of the two.2011 May 7, Margalit Fox, “Lanny Friedlander, Founder of Reason Magazine, Dies at 63”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the...
  • Political colorists can be promiscuous in calling states purple, but my state is true to that hue.2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2023

adjectiveOf language, extravagantly ornate, like purple prose.

  • A writer who has made a career of churning out thick novels may be expected to write too quickly to notice that patches of her writing are unbearably purple.1979 August 4, Rob Schmieder, “Anything a Man Does”, in Gay Community News, page 15

verbTo turn purple in colour.

  • The gang leader purpled and raised his gun.1999, David Edelstein, In Nomine: Corporeal Player's Guide, Steve Jackson Games,, →ISBN, page 8

More sentences with purple

  • The fact that it is purple militates against it being a trout.From the entry militates
  • It was round and purple and had sort of a grapey appearance.From the entry grapey
  • The purple worm has a multiattack consisting of a bite and a sting.From the entry multiattack
  • He painted the car blue and black, not solid purple.From the entry not
  • He was a devoted Vikings fan: he bled purple.From the entry bleed
  • I prefer the purple over the pink.From the entry over
  • Owsley Stanley started cooking up those famous purple LSD tabs.From the entry cook up
  • Tai purchased purple flowers in a wabi-sabi pot for Tara.From the entry wabi-sabi
  • Purple and blue are two colors that go together well.From the entry go together
  • In their glossary, they were using a convention where the words were in blue font and the abbreviations and other nonwords were in purple font.From the entry non-word
  • The khus curtains Choudhary bought online came with a purple cloth border.2025 July 14, Sushmita Pathak, “The Aromatic Roots Indians Turn to for Cooling Relief”, in Reasons to Be Cheerful, retrieved 14 Jul 2025. From the entry khus
  • Purple Hawke is one of the best protagonists in gaming period.2024 January 23, Aveta95, Reddit. From the entry Purple Hawke
  • Glenn looked up to see a blinking neon purple sign that read Jon Jon's.2023 January 12, Joe Spano, Quagmire, AuthorHouse, →ISBN. From the entry Michigan left
  • Maybe they saw a purple monster or ate a purple popsicle that tasted like regret.2023 June 28, Jeff Kori, “Porphyrophobia: Comprehensive Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment”, in Health Spot. From the entry porphyrophobic
  • She bought a new strap just for us — a purple one with a Black harness.2021 November 8, Addie Tsai, AKALAC, “To Strap Or Not To Strap — That Is The Question”, in Autostraddle, archived from the original on 08…. From the entry strap
  • Haig’s success in Spain continues a purple patch for Australian road cycling.2021 September 6, Kieran Pender, “Jack Haig defies odds to continue Grand Tour purple patch for Australian cyclists”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry purple patch
  • Purple arrows show the average GPS velocity field relative to station of Paisha, Penghu.2021, Pei-Ru Jian, “The 2010 Jiashian and 2016 Meinong Earthquakes: Doublet Ruptures Interact Across Two Strong Asperities”, in AutoBATS…. From the entry Paisha
  • His lips were chapped and lined with a ghostly purple fringe.2019, Dave Eggers, The Parade, N.Y.: Vintage Books, page 134. From the entry ghostly
  • Beneath the cape she wears a bell-sleeved purple gown with gold ceinture.2018, Will Eaves, Murmur, Canongate, published 2018, page 96. From the entry ceinture
  • Use purple three-awn grass to replace the overused, invasive non-native weedy Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima).2016, Greg Rubin, Lucy Warren, The Drought-Defying California Garden, Portland: Timber Press, published 2021, →ISBN, page 135. From the entry non-native
  • "I hope she doesn't go in for big purple orchids," Miss Tinkham said to Mrs.2016, Mary Lasswell, Let's Go For Broke. From the entry go in for
  • Purple Hawke gets all the love, and I honestly see why.2016 November 4, AntiChri5, Reddit. From the entry Purple Hawke
  • Purple shoots had grown up from the wheat seeds sown in the furrows.2015, Mo Yan [pseudonym; Guan Moye], translated by Howard Goldblatt, Radish (Penguin Specials), Melbourne, Vic.: Penguin Books Australia…. From the entry radish
  • But while four of her fingers are bare of color, her ring finger nails are painted purple.2015 September 1, Nicole Leonard, “Here, there and everywhere: Miss America Kira Kazantsev reflects on ‘exhausting,’ ‘amazing’ year”, in…. From the entry ring finger nail
  • He used his unpurple arm to pull his purple arm around my shoulder.2014, Megan Jean Sovern, The Meaning of Maggie, →ISBN, page 113. From the entry unpurple
  • A bombaceous tree here and there adorned the forest with its numerous purple flowers.2014, Richard Spruce, Alfred Russel Wallace, Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, page 300. From the entry bombaceous
  • Female and young purple martins are gray and black with some blue on the back.2013, Bill Thompson, Southern Birds: Backyard Guide. From the entry purple martin
  • Dark purple riceberry bran contains a higher dietary fiber and antioxidant compounds than unpigmented rice bran.2013 January, P Prangthip, R Surasiang, R Charoensiri, V Leardkamolkam, S Komindr, U Yamborisut, A Vaavichit, R Kongkachuichai…. From the entry riceberry
  • A fluorescent, greenish-yellow purple, octarine can only be detected by wizards and cats.2013 September 17, Jude Stewart, ROY G. BIV: An Exceedingly Surprising Book About Color, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 129. From the entry octarine

Meaning of purple

  1. noun A colour between red and blue; violet, though often closer to magenta.
  2. noun Any non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red.
  3. noun Cloth, or a garment, dyed a purple colour; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple robe or mantle worn by Ancient Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity.

Full definition of purple

Questions about purple in a sentence

How do you use purple in a sentence?
Purple is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “The fact that it is purple militates against it being a trout.”
What is a short sentence with purple?
“the banded purple”
What does purple mean?
Purple means a colour between red and blue; violet, though often closer to magenta.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purple (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use purple in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/purple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.