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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
Shelby Hartman, Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2026
Designer-darling nail artist Jin Soon Choi topped fingers and toes at Proenza Schouler with a hazy cerulean polish named Sea Clay from her eponymous line.
—Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue, 17 Feb. 2026
The Blue Lagoon, with its translucent, cerulean water, is another stunning spot, located on the eastern side of the island.
—Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 17 Feb. 2026
And who knows, perhaps in that sea of glam someone will be brave enough to challenge the Runway editor and wear a cerulean sweater.
—Alfredo Toriello, Vanity Fair, 6 Feb. 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 22 Feb. 2026.
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cerulean
adjective
