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There comes a moment in every young crayon user’s life when they graduate from the 8-count (or 16-count, perhaps) box to the treasure trove of 64 glorious sticks of differently colored wax, when they discover that there isn’t just one brown or orange or blue, that when it comes to colors, the sky’s the limit! Such a moment is often the first encounter people have with the word cerulean, a word that slips sibilantly off the tongue like a balmy ocean breeze. Like azure, cerulean describes things whose blue color resembles that of a clear sky; it’s often used in literature (especially travel writing) to paint an enticing image of an even more enticing vista, as in “the cerulean waters of a tropical lagoon.” While azure is thought to hail from the Persian word lāzhuward, with the same meaning, cerulean comes from the Latin adjective caeruleus, meaning “dark blue.” That word most likely comes from caelum, meaning “sky.”
Examples of cerulean in a Sentence
Zoe Gowen, Southern Living, 29 Dec. 2025
Or a spinny orange swirl of spaghetti pomodoro atop Porta’s Tommaso platter, which features sardines in a cerulean sunburst ($198)?
—Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2025
With hundreds of miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding, plus cerulean lakes for canoeing and kayaking, Kananaskis has been Alberta’s outdoor playground for decades.
—Lisa Kadane, Travel + Leisure, 2 Nov. 2025
While cerulean warblers are just one species, the future of their survival in Indiana speaks to the need for biodiverse forests, according to Pursell.
—Sophie Hartley, IndyStar, 29 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cerulean
Cite this Entry
“Cerulean.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cerulean. Accessed 1 Jan. 2026.
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cerulean
adjective
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