English Explanatory Dictionary

color

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The spectral composition of visible light.
  2. A subset thereof:
  3. A particular set of visible spectral compositions, perceived or named as a class.
  4. Hue as opposed to achromatic colors (black, white and grays).
  5. These hues as used in color television or films, color photographs, etc (as opposed to the shades of grey used in black-and-white television).
  6. Any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms, including azure, gules, sable, and vert.
  7. A paint.
  8. Human skin tone, especially as an indicator of race or ethnicity.
  9. Skin color, noted as normal, jaundiced, cyanotic, flush, mottled, pale, or ashen as part of the skin signs assessment.
  10. A flushed appearance of blood in the face; redness of complexion.
  11. Richness of expression; detail or flavour that is likely to generate interest or enjoyment.
  12. A standard, flag, or insignia:
adj
  1. Conveying color, as opposed to shades of gray.
verb
  1. To give something color.
  2. To cause (a pipe, especially a meerschaum) to take on a brown or black color, by smoking.
  3. To apply colors to the areas within the boundaries of a line drawing using colored markers or crayons.
  4. To become red through increased blood flow.
  5. To affect without completely changing.
  6. To attribute a quality to; to portray (as).
  7. To assign colors to the vertices of a graph (or the regions of a map) so that no two vertices connected by an edge (regions sharing a border) have the same color.
  8. To affect the quality of a speech sound, especially a vowel.

Pronunciation

kŭlʹə /ˈkʌl.ə/ /ˈkʌl.ə(ɹ)/ [ˈkʰʌl.ə(ɹ)] [ˈkʌləɹ] [ˈkʰɐɫ.ɐ] [ˈkɐl.ɐ(ɾ)] kŭlʹər /ˈkʌl.ɚ/ en-us-color.ogg ko͝olʹər /ˈkʊl.ə(ɹ)/ /ˈkʊl.ɚ/ /ˈkʊlɐ/

Word forms

color colors colour usage notes coloring colored

Etymology

From Middle English colour, color, borrowed from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, color, from Latin color. Doublet of couleur. Displaced English blee, Middle English blee (“color”), from Old English blēo. Also partially replaced Old English hīew (“color”) and its descendants (English hue), which is less often used in this sense. The spelling color was popularized in modern American English by Noah Webster, to match the spelling of the word's Latin etymon, and make all American spellings of the derivatives consistent (colorimeter, coloration, colorize, colorless, etc).

Synonyms

blee color hue shade tincture tint color television complexion ethnicity race banner standard colour DgammaDtime gamma decay dye paint stain tinge color in blush affect influence call

Antonyms

decolor

Related words

:Category:Colors Appendix:Colors colorably coloration tincture

Derived words

anticolor bicolor bodycolor coat color dilution lethal colorability color analyst color announcer color banding color bar color barrier colorbearer colorblind color-blind color blind color blindness colorbreed colorburst colorcast color center color charge color-code color code color-coded color coded color commentator color compass color confinement color constancy color-coordinate color coordinate color coordinate system color coordination color depth color fade colorfast colorfastness color field color-flavor color-flavor locking color font color force colorful color grading color guard color-guard coloriferous colorification Colorify colorimeter colorimetry colorine colorisation colorise coloriser colorism colorist coloristic colorization colorize colorizer

Translations

Afrikaans: kleur American Sign Language: 5@Chin-PalmBack Wiggle Arabic: لَوْن Armenian: գույն Azerbaijani: rəng Bashkir: төҫ Belarusian: ко́лер Bulgarian: цвят Bulgarian: колори́т Catalan: color Chinese Cantonese: 顏色 /颜色 Chinese Mandarin: 色 Chinese Mandarin: 顏色 /颜色 Czech: barva Danish: farve Dutch: kleur Egyptian: i-wn:n-D3 Estonian: värv Finnish: väri Finnish: paikallisväri French: couleur Georgian: ფერი German: Farbe Greek: χρώμα Greenlandic: qalipaat Haitian Creole: koulè Hebrew: צֶבַע Hindi: रंग White Hmong: xim Hungarian: szín Icelandic: litur Irish: dath Japanese: 色 Japanese: 色彩 Central Kurdish: ڕەنگ Louisiana Creole: koulær Louisiana Creole: koulè Louisiana Creole: koulèr Low German: farv Low German: klöör Luxembourgish: Faarf Luxembourgish: Fuarf Malay: warna Malay: rona Malayalam: നിറം Malayalam: വർണ്ണം Norwegian Bokmål: farge Norwegian Bokmål: koloritt Norwegian Nynorsk: farge Norwegian Nynorsk: koloritt Old English: blēo Old English: hīew Dari: رَنْگ Albanian: ly Arabic: لَوَّنَ Armenian: ներկել Belarusian: фарбава́ць Belarusian: пафарбава́ць Breton: livañ Bulgarian: оцветявам Catalan: acolorir Chinese Mandarin: 填色 Chinese Mandarin: 上色 Chinese Mandarin: 著色 Czech: obarvit Danish: farve Danish: male Dutch: kleuren Dutch: inkleuren Esperanto: kolorigi Esperanto: kolori Finnish: värjätä French: colorer French: teinter Galician: colorar German: färben Greek: χρωματίζω Greek: βάφω Hebrew: צבע Hungarian: színez Hungarian: fest Icelandic: lita
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