red

adjective

ˈred 

redder; reddest

1

a

: of the color red

a red rose

red tomatoes

I stopped at the red light.

b

: having red as a distinguishing color

He was captain of the red team.

2

a(1)

: flushed especially with anger or embarrassment

Her red face made clear that his remark was cruel.

(2)

: ruddy, florid

a healthy child with red cheeks

(3)

: being or having skin tinged with red due to inflammation

The wound was red and swollen.

Her skin was red from hours in the sun.

(4)

offensive : being or having skin of a coppery hue

b

: bloodshot

eyes red from crying

c

of hair, fur, etc. : being in the color range between a moderate orange and russet or bay

a red setter

a horse with a red coat

d

: tinged with red : reddish

a red sky/sunrise

red wine

red onions/potatoes

3

: heated to redness : glowing

red coals

4

a

: inciting or endorsing radical social or political change especially by force

b

often Red : communist

c

often Red : of or relating to a communist country and especially to the former Soviet Union

5

US politics : tending to support Republican candidates or policies

Some choices are easy. You're either a dog guy or a cat guy. Red state or blue.

—Rick Reilly

compare blue sense 9, purple sense 3

see also:

red in tooth and claw

Synonyms of red

• glowing
• tanned
• ruddy
• brown
• flush
• warm
• rosy
• pink

Examples of red in a Sentence

a shiny red fire truck

His face turns red when he gets angry.

Recent Examples on the Web

Hummers are particularly fond of red tubular flowers. —Rita Pelczar, Better Homes & Gardens, 29 May 2026

Prices for those red orbs have soared more than any other food product over the past year to cement a spot as one of the consumer headaches du jour. —Matt Sedensky, Fortune, 29 May 2026

In a year, LiPfe explants rebuilt themselves into alien-like translucent orbs with a large red cellular mass at their core. —Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 29 May 2026

Local food vendors line the concourse, serving up foot-long corn dogs out of a 20-foot red tent, ice cream, or kettle corn, to name a few. —James Burky, Denver Post, 29 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English red, rede, reed, going back to Old English rēad, going back to Germanic *rauđa- (whence also Old Frisian rād, rōd "red, yellow," Old Saxon rōd "red," Middle Dutch root, rood, Old High German rōt, Old Norse rauðr, Gothic rauþs), going back to Indo-European *h₁rou̯dh-o-, whence also Old Irish rúad "reddish brown, dark red," Welsh rhudd "red, tawny," Latin rūfus (from a dialect or another Italic language, with -f- for expected -b-), Lithuanian raũdas "red-brown, reddish," Russian dialect rúdyj "blood-red," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian rûd "reddish brown"; from a suffixed zero-grade form *h₁rudh-ro-, Old Norse roðra "blood," Latin ruber "red," Tocharian B ratre, Greek erythrós, Sanskrit rudhiráḥ "red, bloody"

Note: The Modern English form reflects shortening of Middle English ę̄ (long open e), found in other monosyllabic words ending in a voiced dental stop (compare dead entry 1, head entry 1, shred entry 1); as with shred, this change took place early enough to be reflected in early Modern English spelling (unlike dead and head). The surnames Read, Reade, etc., may preserve the long vowel.

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing red

• a red rag to a bull
• beet red
• brick red
• citrus red mite
• code red
• Congo red
• cut through red tape
• drowning/awash in red ink
• European red mite
• far-red
• fire-engine red
• Indian red
• in the red
• neutral red
• not one red cent
• paint the town (red)
• phenol red
• raised red flags
• red admiral
• red alert
• red alga
• red ant
• red as a beet
• red-bait
• red-baiting
• red bay
• red bean
• red-bellied dace
• red-bellied woodpecker
• red bliss
• red blood cell
• red blood corpuscle
• red-blooded
• red bug
• red bush
• red bush tea
• red card
• red-carpet
• red cedar
• red cell
• red cent
• red clover
• red-cockaded woodpecker
• red coral
• red corpuscle
• red currant
• red deer
• red dog
• red drum
• red-eye
• red-eyed vireo
• red-faced
• red fescue
• red-flag
• red-flag law
• red flannel hash
• red fox
• red giant
• red-green blindness
• red-green color blindness
• red gum
• red-handed
• red heat
• red herring
• red-hot
• red-hot poker
• red ink
• red in tooth and claw
• red kangaroo
• red lead
• red leaf
• red-legged grasshopper
• red-letter
• red-letter day
• red-light
• red man
• red maple
• red marrow
• red mass
• red meat
• red mite
• red mulberry
• red mullet
• red oak
• red ocher
• red osier
• red panda
• red-pencil
• red pepper
• red-pill
• red pilled
• red pine
• red poll
• red rat snake
• red ribbon
• red rust
• red salmon
• red-shafted flicker
• red-shouldered hawk
• red sindhi
• red siskin
• red snapper
• red snow
• red soil
• red spider
• red spruce
• red squill
• red squirrel
• red star
• red-tailed hawk
• red tape
• red tea
• red tide
• red water
• red wheat
• red wiggler
• red wine
• red-winged blackbird
• red wolf
• red worm
• red zone
• roll out the red carpet
• see red
• take the red pill
• the red zone
• Turkey red
• Venetian red
• western red cedar

Rhymes for red

• bed
• bled
• bread
• bred
• dead
• dread
• ed
• fed
• fled
• ged
• head
• lead

Kids Definition

red

1 of 2 adjective

ˈred 

redder; reddest

1

: of the color red

2

a

: flushed especially with anger or embarrassment

b

: bloodshot

eyes red from weeping

3

a

: openly supporting sweeping social or political change especially by force

b

often capitalized : encouraging, aiding, or furthering Communism : communist

c

often capitalized : of or relating to the U.S.S.R. or a Communist country

4

: tending to support Republican candidates or policies

red states

redly adverb

redness noun

red

2 of 2 noun

1

: a color like that of blood or a ruby

2

: one that is of a red color

3

: a dye that colors red

4

a

: a person who seeks the overthrow of a social or political order : revolutionary

b

often capitalized : communist

5

: the condition of showing a loss

in the red

Medical Definition

red

1 of 2 adjective

ˈred 

redder; reddest

: of the color red

red

2 of 2 noun

1

: a color whose hue resembles that of blood or of the ruby or is that of the long-wave extreme of the visible spectrum

2

: a pigment or dye that colors red see congo red, neutral red, vital red