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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
Adam Kovac,
Scientific American,
22 June 2026
There are faint smudges of pastel crayon on the wall and carved profanities with paint chips revealing the previous cerulean walls.
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Ashley Andreou,
STAT,
22 June 2026
Get Up and Go Kayaking - Florida Keys offers guided eco-tours departing from Sugarloaf Marina in clear kayaks that let paddlers see directly into the cerulean waters below.
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Skye Sherman,
Southern Living,
20 June 2026
The crowd spilled over to Le Bar, with its cerulean fabric swirls blanketing the ceiling, a nod to the hotel’s haute couture history.
—
Lane Nieset,
Travel + Leisure,
12 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for cerulean
Cite this Entry
“Cerulean.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cerulean. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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cerulean
adjective
