Tenebrous Lavender
Tenebrous Lavender (#5A1D80) is a deep indigo with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (277°, 63%, 31%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Latin tenebrōsus, full of darkness — derived from tenebrae (the deepening shadows of evening prayer service). As a color modifier, tenebrous implies a literary-poetic register for deep-shadowed darkness, where the hue is overwhelmed by ambient gloom. Sits at the deep-and-cool end of the grid, near Stygian but with painterly-baroque connotations.
Lavandula angustifolia, the Mediterranean shrub cultivated since Roman times for fragrance and ornament — the symbol of Provence's Plateau de Valensole, where July fields look painted. The color refers to a fresh lavender flower spike at peak bloom: a soft, slightly muted pale blue-violet with the matte finish of small clustered florets. Lighter than periwinkle, cooler than mauve, with the aromatic weight of essential oil and dried sachet alike.
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.