Red Color Meaning | Connotations, Shades & Palettes

Few colors stir emotion as powerfully as red. Its fiery, bold, romantic, intense, and dramatic hues carry deep meaning across cultures and history.

What does the color red symbolize?

The color red is one of the most vivid and attention-grabbing hues in the spectrum. Its natural association with blood reinforces cultural links to life and danger. In European and other Western cultures, red often symbolizes:

• Passion, love, and desire
• Energy, strength, and confidence
• Danger, warning, and aggression
• Sacrifice, blood, and mortality

Designers in Western cultures use shades of red to draw attention to key elements, highlight alerts or errors, and communicate energy and excitement.

In China, Red represents success, good fortune, joy, and fertility and is closely tied to celebrations such as New Year and weddings. Brides customarily wear red in both China and India—in India, the color Red can symbolize purity, fertility, and heat. Red is employed as a heroic and sacred color in Japan, while in many regions of Africa, it can symbolize death or mourning.

Facts about red

Red is one of the primary colors in the RGB (red, green, and blue) and RYB (red, yellow, and blue) color models, but it is not a primary color in the CMY (cyan, magenta, and yellow) or CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and “key” [e.g., black]) models. Red has the longest wavelength of any color visible to the human eye, which is why it stands out so vividly.

Ever noticed how sunsets glow with deep reds and oranges? That’s because tiny particles in the air scatter shorter wavelengths like blue and violet light, letting the warmer hues dominate.

Mars gets its famous reddish tint because the iron on its surface has oxidized, or “rusted,” giving the planet that rusty red color.

Linguists think that after words for black and white, red was the first color name to appear in human languages.

According to a study by the Unicode Consortium, the red heart emoji was the second most frequently used emoji in 2021.

Shades of red

Commonly used words to describe different shades of red include:

• Burgundy: A deep, dark red with a purple undertone.
• Maroon: A dark red with a brown undertone.
• Crimson: A rich, vivid red mixed with a slight blue undertone.
• Cherry: A bright, true red.
• Ruby: A vibrant red with a pink undertone.
• Rose: A light red with a soft pink hue.
• Vermilion: A strong red with an orange undertone.
• Scarlet: A bright red with a fiery orange undertone.
• Coral: A warm red with a pink-orange undertone.

Colors that go with red

You can find colors that go well with a particular type of red by using a color wheel to identify hues that create a harmonizing color palette—such as its complementary color (opposite), analogous colors (next to it), triadic colors (three evenly spaced hues), and rectangular colors (two complementary pairs forming a rectangle). In addition, certain tints, tones, and shades of the particular red will also harmonize well (monochromatic colors).

Red color code

The HTML and CSS color code for red is #FF0000. The official HTML and CSS color names for the shades of red supported by all modern browsers are:

• Lightsalmon (#FFA07A)
• Salmon (#FA8072)
• Darksalmon (#E9967A)
• Lightcoral (#F08080)
• Indianred (#CD5C5C)
• Crimson (#DC143C)
• Firebrick (#B22222)
• Red (#FF0000)
• Dark red (#8B0000)

Frequently asked questions about the color red

What color do red and green make?

When you’re mixing paint colors, red and green make brown. However, mixing red and green light (e.g., on a computer monitor) produces yellow.

QuillBot’s free Paraphraser can help improve your writing with interesting descriptions of color.

What color do red and blue make?

When you’re mixing paint colors, red and blue make purple . Mixing pure red and blue light (e.g., on a computer monitor) produces magenta.

QuillBot’s free Paraphraser can suggest alternative ways of describing color to elevate your writing.

What does paint the town red mean?

If you paint the town red, you go out at night to celebrate or have fun with friends, enjoying yourself in restaurants, bars, or clubs.

QuillBot’s free AI chat can answer your questions about tricky idiomatic phrases in English.

What color do red and yellow make?

When you’re mixing paint colors, red and yellow make orange. Mixing pure red light with yellow light (e.g., on a computer monitor) also produces orange—since yellow light is already a mix of red and green, you’re effectively combining red + red + green.

You can use QuillBot’s free Paraphraser to help you come up with creative ways of describing color.

What color do red and purple make?

When you’re mixing paint, red and purple make a redder hue of purple, often called red-purple or red-violet. Mixing pure red light with purple light (e.g., on a computer monitor) produces a magenta or reddish-purple color—since purple light is already a mix of red and blue, you’re effectively combining red + red + blue.

You can use QuillBot’s free Paraphraser to improve your texts with creative descriptions of color.