Red-violet refers to a rich color with a high average saturation, about 3/4 between red and magenta, closer to magenta than red. In American English, this color term is sometimes used in color theory as one of the colors purple. - a non-spectral color between red and violet that is a deep version of a color on the violet line on the CIE chromaticity diagram. Some artists use red violet and it is equivalent to violet. Because the meaning of lilac and lila are so different when comparing speakers of different countries and languages, there is a lot of confusion. The Munsell color system includes the term purple hue, and to some English speakers (especially in the US) it refers to “red-purple” with the maximum saturation of 12. This convention is for color purposes, since red-violet is an intermediate between purple and printer magenta (the color considered magenta before the invention of the web color magenta for computer screens).