Azure

Chicago and "the Bean", July 2011

The word this week is azure (pronounced azh-er), an adjective meaning the purplish blue color of the sky on a cloudless day.  It is my favorite color! :)  There are several other words that can be used  for this shade of blue, including sapphire, sky-blue (though, personally, I tend to think of that as a lighter blue), and cerulean.

I learned the word when I was a teenager, and used it in one of the poems I wrote back then.  I also used it recently in my novel:

The crowd watched the birds
as they swooped into the air,
once again forming a giant black spot
against the azure sky.

What ways can you think of to use the word azure?