Purplish means having a color that is somewhat purple or similar to purple, but not quite fully purple. A bruise might look purplish as it heals, shifting between blue, purple, and greenish tones. The sky at sunset sometimes turns purplish when the sun's light mixes red and blue hues together. A plum's skin is purplish, darker than lavender but not as deep as grape juice.

The suffix “-ish” is useful when you can't quite pin down an exact color. Something purplish might lean toward red, blue, or even brown, but purple is the closest word you can find to describe it. If you're painting and mix too much red into your blue, you might end up with a purplish color that isn't quite what you wanted. The same goes for greenish, yellowish, or bluish: they all describe colors that remind you of the main color but aren't pure versions of it.