Striking Absinthe
Striking Absinthe (#4DAD3D) 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 (111°, 48%, 46%) 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 violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
The progressive participle of strike, to hit. Used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues that command immediate attention. Striking red, striking blue: the implication is saturation combined with visual impact. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside bold and punchy.
The high-proof distilled spirit flavored with Artemisia absinthium (wormwood) — banned across most of Europe and North America from 1915 to the early 2000s, made famous by la fée verte (the green fairy) of Belle Époque Paris. The color refers to fresh-poured absinthe in a flute: a saturated, slightly cool deep yellow-green with the optical clarity of high-proof anise spirit.
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.