color - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (2024)

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:

color

Wikipedia

Picture dictionary
red orange yellow green blue purple pink brown black gray white
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Alternative forms[edit]

• colour (Commonwealth, Ireland) (see the usage notes below)

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English color, colour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, color, from Latin color.

Displaced English blee, Middle English blee (“color”), from Old English blēo. Also partially replaced Old English hīew (“color”) and its descendants, which is less often used in this sense. Doublet of couleur.

In the US, the spelling color is used to match the spelling of the word's Latin etymon, and to make all derivatives consistent (colorimeter, coloration, colorize, colorless, etc). In the rest of the English-speaking world, the spelling colour has been retained.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (General American) enPR: kŭlʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈkʌl.ɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kŭlʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈkʌl.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌlə(ɹ)
• hom*ophone: culler
• Hyphenation: col‧or

Noun[edit]

color (countable and uncountable, plural colors) (American spelling) (Canadian spelling, rare)

1. (uncountable) The spectral composition of visible light.

   Humans and birds can perceive color.

   Synonym: (archaic) blee

2. A subset thereof:
   1. (countable) A particular set of visible spectral compositions, perceived or named as a class.

      Most languages have names for the colors black, white, red, and green.

      Synonyms: hue, (archaic) blee

      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

        Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

   2. (uncountable) Hue as opposed to achromatic colors (black, white and grays).

      He referred to the white flag as one "drained of all color".

      Synonyms: hue, shade, (archaic) blee

   3. 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).

      This film is broadcast in color. Most people dream in color, but some dream in black and white.

      Synonym: color television

   4. (heraldry) Any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms, including azure, gules, sable, and vert.

      Coordinate terms: metal, stain

3. A paint.

   The artist took out her colors and began work on a landscape.

4. (uncountable) Human skin tone, especially as an indicator of race or ethnicity.

   Color has been a sensitive issue in many societies.

   Synonyms: complexion, ethnicity, race

5. (medicine) Skin color, noted as normal, jaundiced, cyanotic, flush, mottled, pale, or ashen as part of the skin signs assessment.
6. A flushed appearance of blood in the face; redness of complexion.

   • 1864, Sir Henry Stewart Cunningham, Late Laurels, volumes 1-2, page 117:

     […] her very embarrassment wore a graceful air; her high colour had softened down to a warm, delicate tint; and her dress, which looked beautifully new and fresh, was in good taste, and showed her off to advantage.

8. (figuratively) Richness of expression; detail or flavour that is likely to generate interest or enjoyment.

   There is a great deal of colour in his writing.

   a bit of local color

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter I, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC:

     Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust[…].

   Could you give me some color with regards to which products made up the mix of revenue for this quarter?

9. A standard, flag, or insignia:
   1. (in the plural) A standard or banner.

      The loss of their colors destroyed the regiment's morale.

      Synonyms: banner, standard

   2. (in the plural) The flag of a nation or team.

      The colors were raised over the new territory.

      • 1856, “Treaty signed April 18, 1855; ratified April 5, 1856”, in Treaty of friendship and commerce between Great Britain and Siam, Bangkok: J. H. Chandler, page 7:

        The arrival of the British Consul at Bangkok shall not take place before the ratification of this Treaty, nor until ten vessels owned by British subjects, sailing under British colours and with British papers, shall have entered the port of Bangkok for purposes of trade, subsequent to the signing of this Treaty.

   3. (in the plural) Gang insignia.

      Both of the perpetrators were wearing colors.

10. (in the plural) An award for sporting achievement, particularly within a school or university.

    He was awarded colors for his football.

11. (military, in the plural) The morning ceremony of raising the flag.
12. (physics) A property of quarks, with three values called red, green, and blue, which they can exchange by passing gluons; color charge.
13. (finance, uncountable) A third-order measure of derivative price sensitivity, expressed as the rate of change of gamma with respect to time, or equivalently the rate of change of charm with respect to changes in the underlying asset price.
14. (typography) The relative lightness or darkness of a mass of written or printed text on a page. (See type color on Wikipedia.Wikipedia )
15. (snooker) Any of the colored balls excluding the reds.
16. A front or facade; an ostensible truth actually false; pretext.

    • 2011, David Baldacci, The Collectors:

      At the far end of the continuum, Roger Seagraves collected personal items from people he'd murdered, or assassinated rather, since he'd done it under the color of serving his country.

17. An appearance of right or authority; color of law.

    Under color of law, he managed to bilk taxpayers of millions of dollars.

    • 1882, The Ohio Law Journal, volume 2, page 396:

      The only thing which this defendant is accused of doing is that he excluded this boy from the school, and he did it under the color of the statute relating to the subject, and did it because he was a colored boy.

    • 1770, “Parliamentary Privilege Act 1770”, in legislation.gov.uk‎^[1]:

      no such action, suit, or any other process or proceeding thereupon shall at any time be impeached, stayed, or delayed by or under colour or pretence of any privilege of Parliament.

18. (mining) Gold, particles of gold found when prospecting.

    • 2013, Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries, London, published 2014, →ISBN, page 184:

      He smelted Wells’s colour before it was valued, and by the time anybody saw it, it had been poured into bars and stamped with the Reserve seal.

      See Also

      Can Latin be Spoken? Common questions answered by a Latin speakerLatin language | Definition, Origin, Examples, Rules, & FactsColors in Christianity - Google Arts & CultureBlue – an Arabic word

Usage notes[edit]

The late Anglo-Norman colour, which is the standard UK spelling, has been the usual spelling in Britain since the 14th century and was chosen by Dr. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) along with other Anglo-Norman spellings such as favour, honour, etc. The Latin spelling color was occasionally used from the 15th century onward, mainly due to Latin influence; it was lemmatized by Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), along with favor, honor, etc., and is currently the standard US spelling.

In Canada, colour is preferred, but color is not unknown; in Australia, -our endings are the standard, although -or endings had some currency in the past and are still sporadically found in some regions. In New Zealand and South Africa, -our endings are the standard.

Synonyms[edit]

• (measure of derivative price sensitivity): colour, DgammaDtime, gamma decay

Hypernyms[edit]

• (measure of derivative price sensitivity): Greeks (includes list of coordinate terms)

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

The majority of these terms are either considered alternative forms of, or have alternative forms corresponding to, colour (the Commonwealth and Irish spelling).

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

color (not comparable) (American spelling)

1. Conveying color, as opposed to shades of gray.

   Color television and movies were considered a great improvement over black and white.

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

color (third-person singular simple present colors, present participle coloring, simple past and past participle colored) (American spelling)

1. (transitive) To give something color.

   Synonyms: dye, paint, stain, shade, tinge, tint

   We could color the walls red.

   1. (transitive) To cause (a pipe, especially a meerschaum) to take on a brown or black color, by smoking.
2. (intransitive) To apply colors to the areas within the boundaries of a line drawing using colored markers or crayons.

   Synonym: color in

   My kindergartener loves to color.

3. (of a person or their face) To become red through increased blood flow.

   Synonym: blush

   Her face colored as she realized her mistake.

4. To affect without completely changing.

   Synonyms: affect, influence

   That interpretation certainly colors my perception of the book.

6. (informal) To attribute a quality to; to portray (as).

   Synonym: call

   Color me confused.

   They tried to colour the industrial unrest as a merely local matter.

7. (mathematics, graph theory) 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.

   Can this graph be 2-colored?

   You can color any map with four colors.

Antonyms[edit]

• decolor

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

• colorate

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

• tincture

Further reading[edit]

• “color”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Color (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Colors on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams[edit]

• corol, crool

Aragonese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Latin colōrem.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /koˈlo(ɾ)/
• Rhymes: -o(ɾ)
• Syllabification: co‧lor

Noun[edit]

colorf

1. colour

References[edit]

• Bal Palazios, Santiago (2002), “color”, in Dizionario breu de a luenga aragonesa, Zaragoza, →ISBN
• “color”, in Aragonario, diccionario aragonés–castellano (in Spanish)

Asturian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• collor

Etymology[edit]

From Latin color, colōrem.

Noun[edit]

colorm (plural colores)

1. color, colour

Related terms[edit]

• coloráu, colloráu

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Latin colōrem. Compare Occitan color, French couleur.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kuˈlo]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [koˈlo]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [koˈloɾ]

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o(ɾ)

Noun[edit]

colorm or (archaic, regional or poetic) f (plural colors)

1. color, colour
2. (poker) flush

Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• “color” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “color”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “color” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “color” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Galician[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• cor

Etymology[edit]

From Old Galician-Portuguese color, alternative form of coor, perhaps from an older forms collor (compare Asturian collor and color), from Latin color, colōrem.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): [ˈkoloɾ]

Noun[edit]

colorf (plural colores)

1. color, hue

   • 1295, R. Lorenzo, La traducción gallega de la Crónica General y de la Crónica de Castilla, Ourense: I.E.O.P.F., page 745:

     diz que apareçeu ẽno çeo hũa cruz, que era de muytas colores et muy fremosa; et teuerõna os cristãos por muy boo sinal

     he says that a cross appeared in the sky, which was of many colors and very beauty; and the Christians considered it a very good sign

2. flush (suffusion of the face with blood)

Derived terms[edit]

• colorado
• de color

References[edit]

• “color” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “color” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “collor” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “color” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “color” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “cor” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Italian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /koˈlor/
• Rhymes: -or
• Hyphenation: co‧lór

Noun[edit]

colorm (apocopated)

1. Apocopic form of colore

Anagrams[edit]

• cloro, cloro-

Latin[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• colōs (archaic)

Etymology[edit]

From earlier colōs (genitive colōris), from Proto-Italic *kelōs, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide, conceal”). The nominative singular changed to color in Classical times by analogy with the oblique forms, where /r/ had regularly developed from an original intervocalic /s/.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈko.lor/, [ˈkɔɫ̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈko.lor/, [ˈkɔːlor]

Noun[edit]

colorm (genitive colōris); third declension

1. colour (UK), color (US); shade, hue, tint

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.429–430:

     tot fuerant illic, quot habet nātūra, colōrēs,
     pictaque dissimilī flōre nitēbat humus.

     In that place there had been so many colors – as many as nature possesses –
     and the ground was radiant, having been decorated with every different flower.
     (Ovid describes the field where Persephone and her attendants picked flowers.)

2. pigment
3. complexion
4. outward appearance

Declension[edit]

Third-declension noun.

Derived terms[edit]

• colōrō
• homō nūllīus colōris

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

• "color", in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "color", in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• color in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• color in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

Occitan[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• coulour (Provençal)

Etymology[edit]

From Old Occitan color, from Latin color, colōrem.

Pronunciation[edit]

• Audio

  (file)

Noun[edit]

colorf (plural colors)

1. color

Old French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• colour
• colur
• culur

Etymology[edit]

From Latin color, colōrem (“color or colour”).

Noun[edit]

color oblique singular,f (oblique plural colors, nominative singular color, nominative plural colors)

1. color, colour

Descendants[edit]

• → Danish: kulør
• → Dutch: kleur
  • Afrikaans: kleur
• → English: color, colour
• French: couleur
• Norman: couleu (Jersey), couleur (Guernsey), couoleu (continental Normandy)
• → Swedish: kulör

Old Galician-Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

colorf

1. Alternative form of coor

Descendants[edit]

• Galician: color

Old Occitan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Latin colōrem.

Noun[edit]

colorf (oblique plural colors, nominative singular color, nominative plural colors)

1. color, colour

Descendants[edit]

• Occitan: colorf

Old Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin color. Cognate with Old Galician-Portuguese coor.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /koˈloɾ/

Noun[edit]

colorm(plural colores)

1. color

   • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 19r:

     […] &́ vieron la gĺa de iſŕl dedios. Como huebra de blãcor. &́ de cristal. ⁊ como color de los cielo^s mõdos […]

     […] and they saw the glory of the God of Israel, like a work of white and crystal, and like the color of realm of the heavens. […]

Descendants[edit]

• Spanish: colorm or f

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English color. Doublet of culoare.

Adjective[edit]

colorm or f or n (indeclinable)

1. color (about film or photography)

Declension[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Picture dictionary
rojo naranja amarillo verde azul violeta negro gris blanco
Click on labels in the image

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

color

Wikipedia ^es

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Old Spanish color, from Latin colōrem, singular accusative of color.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /koˈloɾ/ [koˈloɾ]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: co‧lor

Noun[edit]

colorm or f same meaning (plural colores)

1. color, colour, hue

   • 1888, Eduardo Acevedo Díaz, Ismael:

     Las mujeres atendían los pasteles y los peones los asados, a los que daban las últimas vueltas en las brasas, ya bien en punto y goteando grasa color de oro.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (usually feminine, archaic or dialectal) complexion

Noun[edit]

colorm (plural colores)

1. rouge (cosmetics)
2. pretext, motive, reason
3. character; special quality

   • 1992, “Sevilla tiene un color especial”, César Cadaval, Miguel Ángel Magüesín (lyrics), performed by Los del Río:

     Sevilla tiene un color especial / Sevilla sigue teniendo su duende / Me sigue oliendo a azahar / Me gusta estar con su gente

     Seville has a special character / Seville still has its charm / It still smells like orange blossom to me / I like to be with its people

4. side, party, faction
5. race, ethnicity
6. (poker) flush

Usage notes[edit]

• The word is generally used in the masculine, while its use in the feminine is normal in medieval or classical Spanish. However, in countries like Chile or Ecuador, its use in the feminine is normal to refer to certain food colorings.^[1]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• “color”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Anagrams[edit]

• cloro, corló, corlo, locro