What does "miniate" mean?

To paint or tinge with red lead or vermilion, or with red letters, as in a manuscript.

What is a synonym for "miniate"?

Common synonyms include: crimson, inflame, lipstick, redden, rouge, rubricate.

Miniate

adj, verb

adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1
To paint or tinge with red lead or vermilion, or with red letters, as in a manuscript.
"At Trinity college in Cambridge is a Psalter in Latin and Saxon, admirably written, and illuminated with letters in gold, silver, miniated, &c."
2
decorate (manuscripts) with letters painted red wordnet
3
paint with red lead or vermilion wordnet

Adjective

1
Of or relating to the colour of red lead or vermilion; painted with vermilion.

Synonyms

All synonyms

crimson inflame lipstick redden rouge rubricate

Example

More examples

"At Trinity college in Cambridge is a Psalter in Latin and Saxon, admirably written, and illuminated with letters in gold, silver, miniated, &c."

Etymology

Partly borrowed from Latin miniātus (adjective), partly from miniātus, perfect passive participle of miniō (“to cover with vermilion”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Related phrases

red lead

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.