Spirited Oriole
Spirited Oriole (#E16B3A) is a true orange with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (18°, 74%, 55%) 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 cyan. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
An adjectival form of spirit — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as animate and characterful. Spirited orange, spirited green: the implication is saturation combined with personality, a color that feels like it has agency. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside lively and vibrant.
The genus Icterus — particularly I. galbula, the Baltimore oriole whose males in breeding plumage are vivid orange with black wings. The color refers to a male Baltimore oriole at full breeding plumage: a saturated, slightly cool orange with the matte finish of carotenoid-pigmented feathers. Brighter than tangerine, warmer than carrot.
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.