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There comes a moment in every young crayon user’s life when they graduate from the 8-count (or 16-count, perhaps) box to the treasure trove of 64 glorious sticks of differently colored wax, when they discover that there isn’t just one brown or orange or blue, that when it comes to colors, the sky’s the limit! Such a moment is often the first encounter people have with the word cerulean, a word that slips sibilantly off the tongue like a balmy ocean breeze. Like azure, cerulean describes things whose blue color resembles that of a clear sky; it’s often used in literature (especially travel writing) to paint an enticing image of an even more enticing vista, as in “the cerulean waters of a tropical lagoon.” While azure is thought to hail from the Persian word lāzhuward, with the same meaning, cerulean comes from the Latin adjective caeruleus, meaning “dark blue.” That word most likely comes from caelum, meaning “sky.”
Examples of cerulean in a Sentence
Katherine Fung, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 June 2025
Spice’s blue eyeliner matched her cerulean manicure and the color of Muni Long’s hair.
—India Espy-Jones, Essence, 10 June 2025
Just a few hours south of Rome, Italy’s Amalfi Coast unfolds into a breathtaking landscape of rugged cliffs overlooking cerulean waters.
—Katie Kelly Bell, Forbes.com, 2 June 2025
For instance, why not try cerulean tights with an otherwise conservative academic look?
—Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for cerulean
Cite this Entry
“Cerulean.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cerulean. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.
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cerulean
adjective
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