Ultramarine
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 In full ultramarine blue: a brilliant blue pigment traditionally made from ground-up lapis lazuli, and now usually either extracted from mineral deposits or made synthetically. countable, uncountable
- 2 a vivid blue to purple-blue color wordnet
- 3 A brilliant dark blue or slightly purplish colour like that of the pigment. countable, uncountable
"The atmosphere beneath is languorous, and is so tinged with azure that what artists call the middle distance partakes also of that hue, while the horizon beyond is of the deepest ultramarine."
- 4 blue pigment made of powdered lapis lazuli wordnet
- 1 Beyond the sea. archaic
"[I]n England we ſhall never be taught to look upon the annihilation of our trade, the ruin of our credit, the defeat of our armies, and the loſs of our ultramarine dominions (whatever the author may think of them), to be the high road to proſperity and greatneſs."
- 2 Of a brilliant dark blue or slightly purplish color like that of the pigment (noun sense 1).
- 1 of a brilliant pure blue to purplish blue color wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"[I]n England we ſhall never be taught to look upon the annihilation of our trade, the ruin of our credit, the defeat of our armies, and the loſs of our ultramarine dominions (whatever the author may think of them), to be the high road to proſperity and greatneſs."
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin ultrāmarīnus, from Latin ultrā (“beyond”) + marīnus (“of or relating to the sea, marine”). By surface analysis, ultra + marine. Noun sense 1 (“pigment”) refers to the fact that lapis lazuli was obtained from foreign countries and hence “beyond the sea”.
Related phrases
More for "ultramarine"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.