purplish red

3.2

A red color with a little purple in it

noun

: rojo purpúreo

The curtains were a striking purplish red, adding warmth to the room.

Examples

The artist used a purplish red to blend the sunset in her painting.
My hair had always been short, so I let it grow long and dyed its natural auburn a deep purplish red.

Fiction book (2000)
For the wedding, she chose a bouquet filled with purplish red roses.

Synonyms

crimson

vspurplish red

58 3.4

A deep red color with a little purple

is a red shade with a subtle purple tint rather than a pure red

red-purple

vspurplish red

1 2.8

A purple color with a clear red tint

is a red shade with only a slight purple hue instead

purplish-red

vspurplish red

3.0

A red color with a touch of purple

is the same shade but written without a hyphen

crimson-magenta

vspurplish red

7.4

A deep red with a purple tint

is focused on red as the base with only a purple touch

crimson-purple

vspurplish red

5.8

A deep purple color mixed with red

is defined as red with a purple tinge rather than purple based

reddish purple

vspurplish red

2.0

A purple color that has some red in it

is a red shade with purple influence rather than purple being primary

How Purple

purple

229 1.0

maroon

3 2.3

purplish red

3.2

red

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

purplish red singular

purplish reds plural

Morphology

purplish + red

The meaning 'a shade of red with a tinge of purple' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'purplish' (resembling purple) with 'red' (the color); a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the meaning. Color-modifying constructions like adjective+color are common cross-linguistically and follow transparent compositional patterns, so no prior exposure is required.

Etymology

Purplish red comes from the simple picture of mixing a little purple into red: purplish means a bit of purple and red is the base color, so the result is a red that leans toward purple. That's why it means 'a shade of red with a touch of purple'.