: a bright red pigment consisting of mercuric sulfide
broadly: any of various red pigments
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebThe devotees would place offerings of cash and fruit into brass bowls as, wordlessly, Chanira would stretch out an arm covered in red satin, smudging vermilion paste, a religious marker called a tika, on their foreheads as a blessing.New York Times, 15 July 2022 Those trees have grown rapidly and now drape the wetland in shade, attracting a variety of birds, such as yellow warblers, blue-gray gnatcatchers and vermilion flycatchers.Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2022 In the 1950s, a film crew using the rocks as a stand-in for Red Rock Canyon in Nevada painted them red for vermilion verisimilitude.Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2022 The sauce will break down into a deep and uniform vermilion color. Danny Chau, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2022 Expect hard-edge black and vermilion typography rendered at the scale of architecture, the better to dance with. Lori Waxman, chicagotribune.com, 6 Jan. 2022 Silva strode across the artificial turf of Cajun Field, the UL Lafayette football stadium, on the evening of Aug. 7, 2020, in a vermilion cap and gown.USA Today, 26 May 2021 Isabella's coat of arms was added to the floral borders, using the same vermilion red as her gown, which the analysis distinguished from the red lead paint of the original. Maev Kennedy, CNN, 19 May 2021 Her admirers noted her ability to draw seemingly infinite nuance and shades from black ink, sometimes highlighted by a stroke of vermilion. Emily Langer, Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English vermilioun, borrowed from Anglo-French vermeilloun, from vermeil "bright red, red color" (going back to Late Latin vermiculus "bright red color (obtained from kermes)," going back to Latin, "insect larva, grub," from vermis "worm" + -culus, diminutive suffix) + -on, diminutive or particularizing suffix, going back to Latin -ō, -ōn-, suffix of persons with a prominent feature — more at worm entry 1