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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dye.

A colorant, especially one that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is applied.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/daɪ/
  1. A colorant, especially one that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is applied.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Any hue or color.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English deye, from Old English dēah, dēag (“color, hue, dye”), from Proto-West Germanic *daugu (“color, shade”), from *daugan (“to conceal, be dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust, camouflage”). Cognates Cognate with Old High German tougan (“dark, secretive”), tougal (“dark, hidden, covert”), Old English dēagol, dīegle (“dark, hidden, secret”), Old English dohs, dox (“dusky, dark”). See dusk.

verb/daɪ/
  1. To colour with dye, or as if with dye.

    ambitransitive
    You look different. Have you had your hair dyed?
Where this word comes from

Fom Middle English deien, from Old English dēagian, from the noun.

noun/daɪ/
  1. Archaic spelling of die (“a cube used in games of chance”).

    alt-of · archaic
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.