aqua
n. uncountablen. a light blue-green color, like clear tropical water. You often see this word in fashion or design.
n. a pale greenish-blue color, resembling clear shallow water. Common in design and fashion contexts.
She wore a bright aqua dress to the party.
The designer chose aqua tiles for the bathroom to create a fresh, watery feel.
The artist mixed cyan and white to achieve a soft aqua tone that evoked the calm surface of a tropical lagoon.
From Middle English aqua (“water”), borrowed from Latin aqua. Perhaps also a learned borrowing directly from Latin. Doublet of ea, Eau, eau, and yeo.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 4, 2026