# cyan

Pronunciation: US say "SY-an" /ˈsaɪˌæn/; UK

## Noun

1. An additive secondary color midway between green and blue, produced by light of roughly 490 to 520 nanometers.
   - Simple: A bright blue-green color, the kind you see in clear shallow water.
   - _The designer chose cyan for the brand's background._
   - _Printers combine cyan with magenta and yellow to reproduce a full range of colors._

## Adjective

2. Of a blue-green color sitting midway between green and blue.
   - Simple: Having a bright blue-green color.
   - _The sports car came with a striking cyan finish._
   - _He picked the cyan tiles to brighten the small bathroom._

## Origin

The word is a learned borrowing of Ancient Greek κύανος (kúanos), the name of a blue that writers compared to cornflower, copper carbonate, or lapis lazuli. The Greek word goes back to Mycenaean Greek ku-wa-no and may come from a Hittite word meaning "a precious stone, copper, shade of blue."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cyan (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).