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Glite Dictionary
cinereous

cinereous

9.9
A light gray color like ash
  • adjective
  • /sɪˈnɪəriəs/
translation icon : ceniciento
  • After the fire, the forest floor was covered in a cinereous layer of ash.

Examples

  • This morning's word had been cinereous, which means consisting of or resembling ashes, a gray color tinged with black.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The cinereous feathers of the bird blended in with the ashy landscape.

  • Look at that cinereous cloud, and

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Look at that cinereous patch of ground.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Once she even used it metaphorically, claiming she was in a cinereous mood.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The artist chose a cinereous palette for his painting to evoke a somber mood.

Synonyms

ashy
vscinereous
4 4.1

Pale gray like ashes

uses a descriptive word to state the same appearance
ash-gray
vscinereous
  • US
3.8

A light pale gray that looks like soft smoke

states having that pale gray color as an appearance
ash gray
vscinereous
  • US
3.4

A very pale gray color like the powder left after a fire

describes having that ashlike color rather than naming a shade

How Gray

charcoal
5 1.7
gray
  • US
321 1.0
cinereous
9.9
whitish
4 1.6

Surface Forms

cinereous positive

Morphology

cinereous = ciner + eous

Although the suffix '-eous' is a productive adjectival ending, the root 'ciner-' is a learned Latin combining form (not a standalone English word), so learners cannot reliably infer 'ash-gray' from the components.

Etymology

The word cinereous comes from the Latin cinis, meaning 'ashes'. Think of the English word cinder — cinereous simply means ash-gray, like the color of cold ashes.