How to Use cinnabar in a Sentence

cinnabar

noun
  • Eckstrom often places a piece of antique cinnabar on a mantel or coffee table.
    — Kathryn O'Shea Evans, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2024
  • Making a little go a long way As cinnabar was costly, the client had to purchase and supply it.
    — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The Maya were especially fond of paint made from a blood-red mineral pigment called cinnabar.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 30 June 2020
  • This cinnabar mini-palace accommodates an on-site bench jeweler and a hand engraver.
    — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, 5 Oct. 2024
  • One past place where cinnabar figured prominently is Valencina.
    — Bridget Alex, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Mar. 2024
  • There are a few color options for each cover including chocolate, cinnabar, silver fox, and chestnut.
    — Kelly Allen, House Beautiful, 30 June 2020
  • That turned out to be cinnabar, likely from the same mine that later supplied the mineral for the Spaniards' silver processing.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 17 Jan. 2020
  • But blush prevailed again during the Renaissance, with concoctions of cochineal, sandalwood, or cinnabar mixed with grease or wax.
    — Linda Wells, Town & Country, 16 Apr. 2021
  • But the authors did not detect the highest values in the tombs with the most cinnabar, and some cinnabar-free graves had bones, nevertheless, loaded with mercury.
    — Bridget Alex, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Mar. 2024
  • At the time of the discovery, researchers identified the red pigment as the mineral cinnabar, which was used for its bright red color across many cultures.
    — Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Oct. 2021
  • Medieval painters used a variety of pigments, some of which were quite toxic (cinnabar, orpiment, and lead white in particular).
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 3 Dec. 2021
  • The Maya used cinnabar, a vivid red pigment made from mercury sulfide, to paint temples, decorate ceramics and coat the bodies of elite dead.
    — Lauren Mowery, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
  • During the period studied, cinnabar was used to decorate megalithic chambers, figurines and the bodies of the dead.
    — David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Nov. 2021
  • All of Raphael’s portraits in the octagon are quite distinct—the palette ranges from emerald green and cinnabar to earthy browns and bone black—but there is one bizarre consistency.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2026
  • The researchers attribute the mercury pollution’s presence to the mineral cinnabar, or mercuric sulfide.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 July 2020
  • The contamination likely originated from cinnabar paints and art.
    — Big Think, 24 June 2024
  • One grave unearthed by archaeologists contained roughly 20 pounds of powdered cinnabar.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 July 2020
  • Whoever first decided to throw cinnabar into a fire realized the mercury left as vapor that could be collected and recombined into pure mercury.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 19 Feb. 2020
  • Which means for decoration, the ancient Maya used mercury-containing powder and cinnabar for patios, floor areas, walls and ceramics.
    — Erin Berge, Discover Magazine, 23 Sep. 2022
  • In the late 1800s, Oat Hill was one of the richest cinnabar (mercury) mines in the West, and the trail follows the old road that led toward the mine.
    — Peter Fish, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Feb. 2018
  • Transporting cinnabar long distances for a specific purpose wasn't unheard of in pre-Columbian Peru, so the discovery wasn't shocking.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 17 Jan. 2020
  • Coastal Peru’s arid climate and salty soil helped preserve the bodies, retaining details that show some children had their faces painted with red cinnabar; others wore cotton headdresses.
    — Megan Schmidt, Discover Magazine, 10 Feb. 2020
  • Since Roman times, when slaves worked the cinnabar mines, mercury has been known to cause a wide range of symptoms, including headaches, tremors, drooling, difficulty walking, and eventually, death.
    — National Geographic, 24 May 2016
  • In this case, these ancient craftsmen figured out how to sparingly use Cinnabar, which spoke less to the affluent family’s budget, but rather a common practice to mix iron oxide and cinnabar that included a primer.
    — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The researchers found that trace amounts of cinnabar, a blood-red pigment heavy in mercury that is sometimes used for decorative purposes and is often used in embalming was evident in traces on the exterior of the femur piece.
    — Rebecca Coffey, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Mexican, Chilean, Chinese and English immigrants as well as Americans worked together to extract the mercury from cinnabar.
    — Anne Gelhaus, The Mercury News, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Some scholars posit that people intentionally ingested cinnabar as a drug during religious ceremonies, but this hypothesis remains unproven.
    — David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Nov. 2021
  • At the turn of the 20th century, cinnabar ore—which is used to create liquid mercury, once an important resource for manufacturing firearms—was discovered in the area, and the town's population boomed.
    — Amanda Ogle, Travel + Leisure, 28 Apr. 2026
  • The recent findings on the paintings of Ephesus supported this research, indicating the existence of a kind of ‘family of recipes’ for the application of cinnabar on large surfaces, the study concludes.
    — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The team concluded that the Maya used cinnabar, a bright red mineral containing mercury, for decorative paints and powders that served ceremonial and religious purposes.
    — Jacquelyne Germain, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Sep. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cinnabar.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: