Orpiment

//ˈɔːpɪmənt// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Arsenic trisulphide, occurring naturally in crystals or massive deposits, formerly used as a dye or pigment. countable, uncountable

    "Jeremiah found himself indoors, perfecting his Draftsmanship, bending all day over the work-table, grinding and mixing his own Inks,— siftings and splashes ev'rywhere of King's Yellow, Azure, red Orpiment, Indian lake, Verdigris, Indigo, and Umber."

  2. 2
    a yellow mineral occurring in conjunction with realgar; an ore of arsenic wordnet

Example

More examples

"Jeremiah found himself indoors, perfecting his Draftsmanship, bending all day over the work-table, grinding and mixing his own Inks,— siftings and splashes ev'rywhere of King's Yellow, Azure, red Orpiment, Indian lake, Verdigris, Indigo, and Umber."

Etymology

From Middle English orpyment, from Old French orpiment, from Latin auripigmentum (“orpiment”), from aurum (“gold”) + pigmentum (“pigment”).

Related phrases

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