Red is the color of blood, rubies and strawberries. Next to orange at the end of the visible spectrum of light, red is commonly associated with danger, sacrifice, passion, fire, beauty, blood, anger, socialism and communism, and in China and many other cultures, with happiness.

The word red comes from the Old English rēd. The word can be further traced to the Proto-Germanic rauthaz and the Proto-Indo European root reudh-. In Sanskrit, the word rudhira means red or blood. In the Akkadian language of Ancient Mesopotamia and in the modern Inuit language of Eskimos, the word for red is the same word as "like blood."

The words for 'colored' in Latin (coloratus) and Spanish (colorado) both also mean 'red.' whereas in Portuguese the word for red is vermelho, which comes from Latin "vermiculus", meaning "little worm."