Both sit between blue and green. Teal is the darker and more muted of the two — a deep blue-green. Turquoise is lighter and brighter, leaning blue with a green cast, named after the gemstone. If it looks bright and slightly tropical it is turquoise; if it looks deep and slightly dusty it is teal.
The core difference
Neighbouring colours on the blue-green range, separated by lightness and saturation.
- teal — dark, muted blue-green. Named after the duck, which has a stripe of that colour on its head.
- turquoise — lighter, brighter blue-green. Named after the gemstone.
Where the names come from
Teal is one of relatively few colours named after a bird. Turquoise comes from French pierre turquoise, "Turkish stone" — not because the stone came from Turkey, but because it reached Europe through Turkish trade routes.
Neighbours worth knowing
Cyan is a pure blue-green and one of the printing primaries. Aqua and aquamarine sit near turquoise but lighter. Petrol or petrol blue is close to teal and used more in British English.
