red

1 of 3

adjective

ˈred 

redder; reddest

1

a

: of the color red

a red rose

red tomatoes

I stopped at the red light.

b

: having red as a distinguishing color

He was captain of the red team.

2

a(1)

: flushed especially with anger or embarrassment

Her red face made clear that his remark was cruel.

(2)

: ruddy, florid

a healthy child with red cheeks

(3)

: being or having skin tinged with red due to inflammation

The wound was red and swollen.

Her skin was red from hours in the sun.

(4)

offensive : being or having skin of a coppery hue

b

: bloodshot

eyes red from crying

c

of hair, fur, etc. : being in the color range between a moderate orange and russet or bay

a red setter

a horse with a red coat

d

: tinged with red : reddish

a red sky/sunrise

red wine

red onions/potatoes

3

: heated to redness : glowing

red coals

4

a

: inciting or endorsing radical social or political change especially by force

b

often Red : communist

c

often Red : of or relating to a communist country and especially to the former Soviet Union

5

US politics : tending to support Republican candidates or policies

Some choices are easy. You're either a dog guy or a cat guy. Red state or blue.

—Rick Reilly

compare blue sense 9, purple sense 3

red

2 of 3

noun

plural reds

1

: a color whose hue resembles that of blood or of the ruby or is that of the long-wave extreme of the visible spectrum

2

: red clothing

the lady in red

3

: one that is of a red or reddish color: such as

a

: red wine

b

: an animal with a red or reddish coat

4

a

: a pigment or dye that colors red

b

: a shade or tint of red

5

a

: one who advocates the violent overthrow of an existing social or political order

b

capitalized : communist

6

[from the bookkeeping practice of entering debit items in red ink] : the condition of showing a loss

—usually used with the

in the red

compare black sense 7

7

physics : one of the three colors (see color entry 1 sense 15) that quarks have in the theory of quantum chromodynamics

In QCD there is actually not just one type of quark, but three types or "colors" of quarks. These are sometimes denoted as "red," "blue," and "green" quarks …

—Edward Witten

red

3 of 3

abbreviation

reduce; reduction

Phrases

red in tooth and claw

: characterized by or displaying brutal emotion or violent behavior

Synonyms

Adjective

• blooming
• florid
• flush
• full-blooded
• glowing
• rosy
• rubicund
• ruddy
• sanguine

Noun

• insurgent
• insurrectionary
• insurrectionist
• mutineer
• rebel
• revolter
• revolutionary
• revolutionist

Examples of red in a Sentence

Adjective

a shiny red fire truck

His face turns red when he gets angry.

Noun

The artist uses red to symbolize passion.

a lady dressed in red

the reds and oranges of autumn leaves

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

In between walking red carpets and attending charity events together, the pair welcomed two children, daughters Evangeline Ruth and Elijah. —Ellie Beeck, Peoplemag, 6 Feb. 2023

Unusually, its tan Connolly leather interior is contrasted with red carpets. —Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 5 Feb. 2023

Noun

But now, for a limited time, the minimalist white box becomes a maximalist red for the brand’s Absolute Nourishing Lift Oil. —Emma Sandler, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024

Katie Holmes Holmes sported Carolina Herrera’s signature shades of red and pink, modeling a long-sleeve cutout gown from the label’s spring 2025 collection, which featured a column skirt. —Alex Badia, WWD, 29 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Middle English red, rede, reed, going back to Old English rēad, going back to Germanic *rauđa- (whence also Old Frisian rād, rōd "red, yellow," Old Saxon rōd "red," Middle Dutch root, rood, Old High German rōt, Old Norse rauðr, Gothic rauþs), going back to Indo-European *h₁rou̯dh-o-, whence also Old Irish rúad "reddish brown, dark red," Welsh rhudd "red, tawny," Latin rūfus (from a dialect or another Italic language, with -f- for expected -b-), Lithuanian raũdas "red-brown, reddish," Russian dialect rúdyj "blood-red," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian rûd "reddish brown"; from a suffixed zero-grade form *h₁rudh-ro-, Old Norse roðra "blood," Latin ruber "red," Tocharian B ratre, Greek erythrós, Sanskrit rudhiráḥ "red, bloody"

Note: The Modern English form reflects shortening of Middle English ę̄ (long open e), found in other monosyllabic words ending in a voiced dental stop (compare dead entry 1, head entry 1, shred entry 1); as with shred, this change took place early enough to be reflected in early Modern English spelling (unlike dead and head). The surnames Read, Reade, etc., may preserve the long vowel.

Noun

Middle English red, reed, derivative of red, reed red entry 1

First Known Use

Adjective

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing red

• a red rag to a bull
• beet red
• brick red
• citrus red mite
• Congo red
• cut through red tape
• drowning/awash in red ink
• European red mite
• far-red
• fire-engine red
• Indian red
• in the red
• neutral red
• not one red cent
• paint the town (red)
• phenol red
• raised red flags
• red admiral
• red alert
• red alga
• red ant
• red as a beet
• red-bait
• red-baiting
• red bay
• red bean
• red-bellied dace
• red-bellied woodpecker
• red bliss
• red blood cell
• red blood corpuscle
• red-blooded
• red bug
• red bush
• red bush tea
• red card
• red carpet
• red cedar
• red cell
• red cent
• red clover
• red-cockaded woodpecker
• red coral
• red corpuscle
• red currant
• red deer
• red dog
• red drum
• red dwarf
• red-eye
• red-eyed vireo
• red-faced
• red fescue
• red flag
• red flag law
• red flannel hash
• red fox
• red giant
• red-green blindness
• red-green color blindness
• red gum
• red-handed
• red heat
• red herring
• red hot
• red-hot poker
• red ink
• red kangaroo
• red lead
• red leaf
• red-legged grasshopper
• red-letter
• red-letter day
• red light
• red man
• red maple
• red marrow
• red mass
• red meat
• red mite
• red mulberry
• red mullet
• red oak
• red ocher
• red osier
• red panda
• red-pencil
• red pepper
• red pill
• red pine
• red poll
• red rat snake
• red ribbon
• red rust
• red salmon
• red-shafted flicker
• red-shouldered hawk
• red sindhi
• red siskin
• red snapper
• red snow
• red soil
• red spider
• red spruce
• red squill
• red squirrel
• red star
• red-tailed hawk
• red tape
• red tea
• red tide
• red water
• red wheat
• red wiggler
• red wine
• red-winged blackbird
• red wolf
• red worm
• red zone
• roll out the red carpet
• see red
• take the red pill
• the red zone
• Turkey red
• Venetian red
• western red cedar

Kids Definition

red

1 of 2 adjective

ˈred 

redder; reddest

1

: of the color red

2

a

: flushed especially with anger or embarrassment

b

: bloodshot

eyes red from weeping

3

a

: openly supporting sweeping social or political change especially by force

b

often capitalized : encouraging, aiding, or furthering Communism : communist

c

often capitalized : of or relating to the U.S.S.R. or a Communist country

4

: tending to support Republican candidates or policies

red states

redly adverb

redness noun

red

2 of 2 noun

1

: a color like that of blood or a ruby

2

: one that is of a red color

3

: a dye that colors red

4

a

: a person who seeks the overthrow of a social or political order : revolutionary

b

often capitalized : communist

5

: the condition of showing a loss

in the red

Medical Definition

red

1 of 2 adjective

ˈred 

redder; reddest

: of the color red

red

2 of 2 noun

1

: a color whose hue resembles that of blood or of the ruby or is that of the long-wave extreme of the visible spectrum

2

: a pigment or dye that colors red see congo red, neutral red, vital red

Geographical Definition

Red

geographical name

ˈred 

1

river 1018 miles (1638 kilometers) long flowing east on the Oklahoma–Texas boundary and into the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers in Louisiana

2

river in north central U.S. and south central Canada flowing north on the Minnesota–North Dakota boundary and into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba

3

see arctic red

4

or Hong

ˈhȯŋ 

or (in China) Yuan

yu̇-ˈän 

-ˈan

river 500 miles (805 kilometers) long in southeastern Asia rising in central Yunnan, China, and flowing southeast across northern Vietnam into the Gulf of Tonkin