How do you pronounce cerulean?

The recorded pronunciation is /səˈɹuːli.ən/.

cerulean

/səˈɹuːli.ən/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.30 in modern English

Syllables: ce-ru-le-an
IPA: /səˈɹuːli.ən/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A greenish-blue color.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Jamides.

Countable

adj

Sky-blue.

Example Sentences

"For our blues we have the azures and ceruleans, lapis lazulis, the light and dusty, the powder blues, the deeps: royal, sapphire, navy, and marine […]"
"As far to the west as Monica could see, her world was a sea of fog, […]. Above it arched a cerulean sky; as the sun climbed to the zenith, […], the fog gradually took on a bluish tinge."
"Oh Ramona, if there was only some kind of future / And these cerulean skies / Something in our skies, something in our skies"
"But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets?"

Etymology

From Latin caeruleus (“blue”) + -an, from caelum (“sky, heaven”) + -uleus (diminutive suffix).

Word Breakdown

Prefix: caelum
Suffix: -uleus

Usage

Inflected Forms

ceruleans (plural) cærulean (alternative) more cerulean (comparative) most cerulean (superlative)

Phrases

cerulean blue cerulean warbler

Frequently Paired Words

cerule cerulescence cerulescent

Synonyms

cerulean blue coelin azure sky-blue bright blue sapphire lazuline

Rhymes With

julian julien boolean herculean acheulean apulian acheulian friulian tullian siculian lucullian lucullean