Indigo
adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A purplish-blue color. countable, uncountable
"The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land. It rose in places, black and sharp against the velvety indigo, over her dipping bow, though most of the low littoral was wrapped in obscurity."
- 2 a blue-violet color wordnet
- 3 An indigo-colored dye obtained from certain plants (indigo plant or woad), or a similar synthetic dye. countable, uncountable
- 4 deciduous subshrub of southeastern Asia having pinnate leaves and clusters of red or purple flowers; a source of indigo dye wordnet
- 5 An indigo plant, such as from species in genera Indigofera, Amorpha (false indigo), Baptisia (wild indigo), and Psorothamnus and Dalea (indigo bush). countable, uncountable
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- 6 a blue dye obtained from plants or made synthetically wordnet
- 1 having a deep purplish-blue colour
- 1 having a color between blue and violet wordnet
- 1 A local government area in north-east Victoria, Australia, named after Indigo Valley; in full, the Shire of Indigo.
- 2 A female given name.
"Details of Thunberg’s charge came as Just Stop Oil said its cofounders, Indigo Rumbelow and Roger Hallam, were arrested on Wednesday morning following dawn raids at their homes."
Example
More examples"Jeans manufacturers make denim bluer with indigo dye."
Etymology
16th century (as indico, modern spelling from the 17th century), Spanish índigo, Portuguese endego (modern índigo), or Dutch (via Portuguese) indigo, all from Latin indicum (“indigo”), from Ancient Greek ἰνδικόν (indikón, “Indian dye”), from Ἰνδία (Indía). Doublet of Indic.
Related phrases
More for "indigo"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.