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vermilion

[ver-mil-yuhn]

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noun

a brilliant scarlet red.

a bright-red, water-insoluble pigment consisting of mercuric sulfide, once obtained from cinnabar, now usually produced by the reaction of mercury and sulfur.

adjective

of the color vermilion.

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verb (used with object)

to color with or as if with vermilion.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English vermilioun, vermillon < Anglo-French, Old French verm(e)illon, equivalent to vermeil vermeil + -on noun suffix

Example Sentences

The blossoms range in color from palest white to deep vermilion.

Its own entrance leads to a sleek bar area and a plush vermilion dining room.

Protected by a small umbrella, they sit on the corner, backed by a brick wall of brilliant vermilion.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a town in N Ohio. 11,012.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins

World English Dictionary

vermilion or vermillion (vəˈmɪljən)

—n
1.	a. a bright red to reddish-orange colour
	b. (as adjective): a vermilion car
2.	mercuric sulphide, esp when used as a bright red pigment; cinnabar

[C13: from Old French vermeillon, from vermeil]

vermillion or vermillion

—n

[C13: from Old French vermeillon, from vermeil]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

vermilion

1296, "cinnabar, red dye," from O.Fr. vermeillon, from vermeil "bright-red," from L.L. vermiculus "a little worm," specifically, the cochineal insect from which crimson dyes were obtained (see cochineal), in classical L., "larva of an insect, grub, maggot," dim. of vermis "worm" (see worm).

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Related Words

Chinese vermilion vermeil graysby

pimento rasher vermilion rockfish

Matching Quote

"The possibilities of the art of combination are not infinite, but they tend to be frightful. The Greeks engendered the chimera, a monster with heads of the lion, the dragon and the goat; the theologians of the second century, the Trinity, in which the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are inextricably tied; the Chinese zoologists, the ti-yiang, a vermilion supernatural bird, endowed with six feet and four wings, but without a face or eyes; the geometers of the nineteenth century, the hypercube, a figure with four dimensions, which encloses an infinite number of cubes and has as its faces eight cubes and twenty-four squares. Hollywood has just enriched this vain museum of horrors: by means of an artistic malignity called dubbing, it proposes monsters that combine the illustrious features of Greta Garbo with the voice of Aldonza Lorenzo."

-Jorge Luis Borges

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vermilion

ver·mil·ion

Ver·mil·ion