Violet

How to spell violet

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce violet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does violet mean?

1. nounA small wild or garden plant with sweet-scented purple, blue, or white flowers.
2. nounA bluish-purple colour at the far end of the visible spectrum.

Violet in a sentence

• She planted a violet beside the garden path in early spring.

• She painted the bedroom wall a soft shade of violet.

• A single violet had pushed up through the cracked paving.

• Deep violet sat at the end of the rainbow, beyond the blue.

Where does violet come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French violette, a diminutive form meaning 'little viola', which in turn rested on the Latin viola, the ordinary name for the violet flower. The Latin viola is thought to be related to the Greek ion, another name for the same sweet-smelling plant, so the word carries a long pedigree across the classical languages. English took it up in the early 1300s, first for the flower itself and soon afterward for the bluish-purple colour that matches the petals. The little -et ending is the same diminutive that survives in words like 'cygnet' and 'islet', which is a useful reminder that the spelling ends in a plain -et rather than -ette. Because the colour sense grew directly out of the flower, both meanings have always shared a single spelling.

How the word is built

• viol- (from Latin viola: the violet flower)
• -et (diminutive suffix: little)