mauve
/məʊv/noun, adjective
mauve is spelled M-A-U-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,154th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, mauve means “A rich purple synthetic dye, which faded easily, briefly popular c. 1859‒1873 and now called mauveine” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mauve is mauves.
How many letters and syllables are in mauve?
| Letters | 5: M-A-U-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 41,154th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is mauve?
Mauve appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,154th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce mauve?
- UK /məʊv/
- /mɔv/
- /moʊv/
Mauve has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-mauve.ogg, En-us-mauve.ogg, En-us-mauve2.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mauve?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mauve from its last stressed vowel (/əʊv/, British pronunciation):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of mauve
- mauves plural
- mauver comparative
- more mauve comparative
- mauvest superlative
- most mauve superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mauve mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A rich purple synthetic dye, which faded easily, briefly popular c. 1859‒1873 and now called mauveine.
- 2
A pale purple or violet colour, like the colour of the dye after it has faded.
adjective
- 1
Having a pale purple colour.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mauve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense colour:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mauve |
| German | fliederfarben, blasslila, mauve, malvenfarben, malvenfarbig |
| Portuguese | lilás |
| Spanish | malva |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mauve come from?
Borrowed from French mauve (“mallow”), from Latin malva, which has a purple colour. Doublet of mallow. Coined in 1856 by the chemist William Henry Perkin, when he accidentally created the first aniline dye.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).