English
color
Etymology

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

Displaced English blee, Middle English blee (“color”), from Old English blēo.

The spelling color was popularized in modern American English by 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).

Pronunciation
  • (America) enPR: kŭlʹər, IPA: /ˈkʌl.ɚ/
  • (RP) enPR: kŭlʹə, IPA: /ˈkʌl.ə/
  • (Northern England) enPR: ko͝olʹə, IPA: /ˈkʊl.ə/
Noun

color (American spelling) (Canadian spelling, rare)

  1. (uncountable) The spectral composition of visible light.
    Humans and birds can perceive color.
    Synonyms: 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, 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).
      The accident victim's face was white, drained of all color.
      Synonyms: hue, shade, 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.
      Synonyms: 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.
  7. (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 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey's Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC ↗, chapter I (Anarchy), page 377 ↗, column 2:
      Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) 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?
  8. 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.
    3. (in the plural) Gang insignia.
      Both of the perpetrators were wearing colors.
  9. (in the plural) An award for sporting achievement, particularly within a school or university.
    He was awarded colors for his football.
  10. (military, in the plural) The morning ceremony of raising the flag.
  11. (physics) A property of quarks, with three values called red, green, and blue, which they can exchange by passing gluons; color charge.
  12. (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.
  13. (typography) The relative lightness or darkness of a mass of written or printed text on a page. (See w:type color on Wikipedia.Wikipedia)
  14. (snooker) Any of the colored balls excluding the reds.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. (mining) Gold, particles of gold found when prospecting.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Adjective

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 Verb

color (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.
    Synonyms: color in
    My kindergartener loves to color.
  3. (of a person or their face) To become red through increased blood flow.
    Synonyms: 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.
  5. (informal) To attribute a quality to; to portray (as).
    Synonyms: call
    Color me confused.
    They tried to colour the industrial unrest as a merely local matter.
  6. (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
  • decolor
Translations Translations Translations

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