Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A purplish red, one of the subtractive primary colors.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rich and somewhat glaring red pigment. Also called aniline red and fuchsin.
  • noun The color given by the pigment.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) An aniline dye obtained as an amorphous substance having a green bronze surface color, which dissolves to a shade of red; also, the color; -- so called from Magenta, in Italy, in allusion to the battle fought there about the time the dye was discovered. Called also fuchsin, fuchsine, roseïne, etc.
  • noun The purplish-red color of magenta.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A light purple, purplish-red, or pinkish purple colour obtained by mixing red and blue light (thus a secondary colour), but primary in the CMYK colour system used in printing.
  • adjective having the colour of fuchsia, fuchsine, light purple.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a primary subtractive color for light; a dark purple-red color; the dye for magenta was discovered in 1859, the year of the battle of Magenta
  • adjective of deep purplish red
  • noun a battle in 1859 in which the French and Sardinian forces under Napoleon III defeated the Austrians under Francis Joseph I

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Magenta, a town of northwest Italy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named in 1859 by Edward Chambers Nicholson after the Battle of Magenta, fought earlier that year.

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Examples

  • -- creating normalized set, copy values from settable create table normalset (id int not null default 0, val char (8), key (id)); insert into normalset SELECT id, 'cyan' FROM settable WHERE s like '% cyan%'; insert into normalset SELECT id, 'yellow' FROM settable WHERE s like '% yellow%'; insert into normalset SELECT id, 'magenta' FROM settable WHERE s like '% magenta%'; insert into normalset SELECT id, 'black' FROM settable WHERE s like '% black%';

    Planet MySQL

  • If that's too severe and you are looking for simplicity with a hit of color, try the square-necked, front-pleated Gali wool dress with silk-blend trim in magenta (£ 1,250).

    The Perfect Dress Is a Loyal Friend

  • In the glass, it's a bright ruby red with a thin magenta rim.

    Hudson Valley Wine

  • I wrote my first story at age 3 in magenta crayon on green-bar computer paper!

    “When Did You Know…?” at SF Novelists

  • In the glass, it's a bright ruby red with a thin magenta rim.

    LENNDEVOURS:

  • Two dress up in magenta dresses and gold-trimmed aprons with heavy pots strapped to their backs.

    Catrina: Skeletons take over the art of Capula, Michoacan

  • Two dress up in magenta dresses and gold-trimmed aprons with heavy pots strapped to their backs.

    Catrina: Skeletons take over the art of Capula, Michoacan

  • In the glass, it's a bright ruby red with a thin magenta rim.

    Three Hudson Valley Baco Noirs

  • Rooms fill with light and glow in magenta, green, and endless shades of white with subtle changes in variations as one moves from source to the margins of the enclosing space.

    Different Light

  • Rooms fill with light and glow in magenta, green, and endless shades of white with subtle changes in variations as one moves from source to the margins of the enclosing space.

    Archive 2007-07-01

Comments

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  • An extra-spectral colour! Sweet.

    October 7, 2007

  • Usage notes can be found in comments on solferino and fuchsine.

    October 6, 2017