Ostentatious Caribbean
Ostentatious Caribbean (#40C16C) is a true green with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (140°, 51%, 50%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Latin ostentātiōnis, display — adjectival suffix -ous, derived from ostendere (to show). As a color modifier, ostentatious implies a saturated-and-attention-demanding-and-elaborate quality, the bright color of Belle-Époque-and-Gilded-Age showy-luxury-display interior-decoration. Sits at the bright-and-flamboyant end of the grid, parallel to flamboyant and showy in usage.
The Caribbean Sea — the tropical basin between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, ringed by Cuba, Hispaniola, the Lesser Antilles, and the Central American mainland. The color refers to mid-depth Caribbean water on a sunny day: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical complexity of pure water filtered through coral sand. Cooler than turquoise, warmer than azure, with the postcard weight of a sea named for its indigenous people.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.