How do you pronounce mauve?

The recorded pronunciation is /məʊv/.

mauve

/məʊv/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.71 in modern English

Syllables: mauve
IPA: /məʊv/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A rich purple synthetic dye, which faded easily, briefly popular c. 1859‒1873 and now called mauveine.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

A pale purple or violet colour, like the colour of the dye after it has faded.

Countable; Uncountable

adj

Having a pale purple colour.

Example Sentences

"Never trust a woman who wears mauve, whatever her age may be, or a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons."
"[A]long their time-marked walls wistaria threw patches of mauve blossom."

Etymology

Borrowed from French mauve (“mallow”), from Latin malva, which has a purple colour. Doublet of mallow. Coined in 1856 by the chemist William Henry Perkin, when he accidentally created the first aniline dye.

Origin

Source language: French

Word Breakdown

Root: mauve, malva

Regional Pronunciation

British English: /məʊv/

Usage

Inflected Forms

mauves (plural) mauver (comparative) more mauve (comparative) mauvest (superlative) most mauve (superlative)

Derived Forms

mauvaniline mauveine mauvelous mauvely mauveness mauvine mauvish mauvy

Phrases

mauve box mauve stinger Perkin's mauve

Rhymes With

sauve drove grove stove dove shove cove trove hove gove clove rove