Cinereous
A grey with a hint of coppery brown, like the colour of wood ash
Cinereous is a grey shade with a coppery brown tinge, resembling the look of wood ash. The word comes from the Latin for ashes and has been used in English since 1661, often to describe the plumage of certain birds.
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- Cinereous means ashy grey with a coppery brown tinge.
- The name comes from the Latin for wood ashes.
- First recorded as a colour name in English in 1661.
- Used to describe the plumage of many bird species.
What colour is Cinereous?
Cinereous is a colour that sits between grey and brown, with a soft, ashy appearance. It is not a pure grey but has a subtle warmth, thanks to a coppery brown undertone. The shade is similar to the colour of cooled wood ash left after a fire, making it distinct from cooler or bluish greys.
Where does Cinereous come from?
The name cinereous comes from the Latin word 'cinereus', which means ashy, and is related to 'cinis', meaning wood ashes. This term was first used in English in 1661 to describe colours that resemble the greyish look of ashes. The word is often used in the names of birds with similar plumage.
Where Cinereous is used
Cinereous is mainly used as a descriptive term in natural history, especially for birds with ash grey feathers. The word appears in both English and scientific names for these species. It is not linked to a specific pigment or dye, but rather to the natural colour seen in ash and some animal coats.
Shades and relatives of Cinereous
Cinereous is close to other shades of grey and brown, but is set apart by its ashy and slightly coppery tone. It may be confused with light greyish brown, but cinereous always refers to a grey with a hint of brown, not a true brown or a pure grey.
Colours that go with Cinereous
Harmonies are worked out from the value #98817B. Contrast ratios follow the WCAG 2 formula.
Questions people ask about Cinereous
What colour is cinereous?
Cinereous is a grey shade with a coppery brown tinge, resembling the colour of wood ash.
Where does the name cinereous come from?
The name comes from Latin 'cinereus', which means ashy, and is related to 'cinis', meaning wood ashes.
When was cinereous first used as a colour name?
Cinereous was first recorded as a colour name in English in 1661.
What is cinereous used to describe?
Cinereous is mainly used to describe the ashy grey colour of some birds' plumage.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Cinereous", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.
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