LURID
What does "LURID" mean?
Vivid and shocking in a sensational or distasteful way; or unnaturally glaring in colour.
Meanings
- Sensational and shocking, especially in graphic, gruesome, or scandalous detail. The tabloid ran every lurid detail of the trial.
- Glowing with an unnatural, garish, or harsh colour. A lurid orange glow hung over the burning hillside.
- Pale, wan, or sallow. His face went lurid in the storm light. archaic
Did you know?
- 'Lurid' has flipped meanings: Latin 'luridus' meant pale, sallow, deathly - the colour of a corpse - yet today a 'lurid' scene blazes with garish, over-bright colour. The word travelled from too little colour to far too much.
Word origin
From Latin 'luridus', 'pale yellow, ghastly, sallow'; the modern English senses shifted from that deathly paleness toward both glaring colour and sensational shock.
Remember it
LURID glows like a lurid-bright LURE that reels in your eye - both pull you toward what you maybe shouldn't look at.
A little poem
The headline screams in lurid, bleeding red-
we slow the car, we slow the scrolling thumb,
and call our hunger by the dead man's name.
tercet
What it teaches
The lurid grabs the eye but starves the mind; what shocks fastest usually teaches least.
Quick facts
What does LURID mean?
Vivid and shocking in a sensational or distasteful way; or unnaturally glaring in colour.
Is LURID a valid word?
Yes — LURID is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is LURID?
LURID has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does LURID come from?
From Latin 'luridus', 'pale yellow, ghastly, sallow'; the modern English senses shifted from that deathly paleness toward both glaring colour and sensational shock.
What can LURID teach us?
The lurid grabs the eye but starves the mind; what shocks fastest usually teaches least.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.