color

See also: colôr

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English colour, color, borrowed from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, color, from Latin color, from Old Latin colos (covering), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (to cover, conceal). Akin to Latin cēlō (I hide, conceal), Old English helan ("to conceal, cover, hide"; see hele). Displaced Middle English blee (color), from Old English blēo. More at blee. Also partially replaced Old English hīw (color) and its descendants, which is less often used in this sense. Compare also Dutch kleur (color), Danish kulør (color), Swedish kulör (color), Old Norse kólorr (color).

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, colorize, colorless, etc). Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, the spelling colour has been retained.

Pronunciation

  • (General American) enPR: kŭlʹər, IPA(key): /ˈkʌl.ɚ/
    • (file)
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kŭlʹər, IPA(key): /ˈkʌl.ə(ɹ)/
  • Rhymes: -ʌlə(ɹ)

Noun

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

  1. (uncountable) The spectral composition of visible light
    Humans and birds can perceive color.
    Synonym: blee
  2. (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: blee, hue
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      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.
  3. (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, blee
  4. (uncountable) Human skin tone, especially as an indicator of race or ethnicity.
    Color has been a sensitive issue in many societies.
    Synonyms: color of one’s skin, complexion, blee, ethnicity, race
  5. (figuratively) Interest, especially in a selective area.
    a bit of local color
    Synonym: interest
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter I, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, OCLC 40817384:
      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 [].
  6. (heraldry) Any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms, including azure, gules, sable, and vert. Contrast with metal.
    Synonym: stain
  7. (in the plural) A standard or banner.
    The loss of their colors destroyed the regiment's morale.
    Synonyms: banner, standard
  8. The system of color television.
    This film is broadcast in color.
    Synonym: color television
  9. (in the plural) The flag of a nation or team.
    The colors were raised over the new territory.
  10. (in the plural) Gang insignia.
    Both of the perpetrators were wearing colors.
  11. (in the plural) An award for sporting achievement, particularly within a school or university.
    He was awarded colors for his football.
  12. (military, in the plural) The morning ceremony of raising the flag.
  13. In corporate finance, details on sales, profit margins, or other financial figures, especially while reviewing quarterly results when an officer of a company is speaking to investment analysts.
    Could you give me some color with regards to which products made up the mix of revenue for this quarter?
  14. (physics) A property of quarks, with three values called red, green, and blue, which they can exchange by passing gluons.
  15. (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.
  16. (typography) The relative lightness or darkness of a mass of written or printed text on a page.
  17. (snooker) Any of the colored balls excluding the reds.
  18. A front or facade: an ostensible truth actually false.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  19. An appearance of right or authority.
    Under color of law, he managed to bilk taxpayers of millions of dollars.
  20. (medicine) Skin color noted as: normal, jaundiced, cyanotic, flush, mottled, pale, or ashen as part of the skin signs assessment.

Usage notes

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, -our endings are the standard.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

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

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#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 (third-person singular simple present colors, present participle coloring, simple past and past participle colored) (American spelling)

  1. (transitive) To give something color.
    We could color the walls red.
    Synonyms: dye, paint, stain, shade, tinge, tint
    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.
    My kindergartener loves to color.
    Synonym: color in
  3. (of a face) To become red through increased blood flow.
    Her face colored as she realized her mistake.
    Synonym: blush
  4. To affect without completely changing.
    That interpretation certainly colors my perception of the book.
    Synonyms: affect, influence
  5. (informal) To attribute a quality to.
    Color me confused.
    Synonym: call
  6. (mathematics) To assign colors to the vertices of (a graph) or the regions of (a map) so that no two adjacent ones have the same color.
    Can this graph be two-colored?
    You can color any map with four colors.

Antonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

See also

Colors in English · colors, colours (layout · text)
     white      gray, grey      black
             red ; crimson              orange ; brown              yellow ; cream
             lime              green              mint
             cyan ; teal              azure, sky blue              blue
             violet ; indigo              magenta ; purple              pink

Further reading

Anagrams


Aragonese

Etymology

Noun

color f

  1. color

References


Asturian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin color, colōrem.

Noun

color m (plural colores)

  1. color, colour

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan color, from Latin color, colōrem, from Old Latin colos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (to hide, conceal).

Pronunciation

  • (Balearic) IPA(key): /koˈlo/
  • (Central) IPA(key): /kuˈlo/
  • (Valencian) IPA(key): /koˈloɾ/
  • Rhymes: -o(ɾ)

Noun

color m (plural colors)

  1. color, colour

See also

Colors in Catalan · colors (layout · text)
     blanc      gris      negre
             roig, vermell ; carmesí              taronja ; marró              groc ; crema
             verd lima              verd             
             cian ; xarxet              atzur              blau
             violat ; indi              magenta ; lila, porpra              rosa

Italian

Noun

color m (invariable)

  1. Apocopic form of colore

Anagrams


Latin

Etymology

From Old Latin colos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (to hide, conceal).

Pronunciation

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈko.lor/, [ˈkɔ.ɫɔr]

Noun

color m (genitive colōris); third declension

  1. (UK) colour, shade; (US) color
  2. pigment
  3. complexion
  4. outward appearance

Inflection

Third declension.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative color colōrēs
Genitive colōris colōrum
Dative colōrī colōribus
Accusative colōrem colōrēs
Ablative colōre colōribus
Vocative color colōrēs

Derived terms

Descendants

References

  • 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, 1883–1887)
  • color in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
  • Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to depict a thing in lively colours: summo colore aliquid illustrare

Occitan

Alternative forms

  • coulour (Provence)

Etymology

From Old Occitan color, from Latin color, colōrem.

Noun

color f (plural colors)

  1. color

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin color, colōrem (color or colour)

Noun

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

  1. color, colour

Descendants


Old Occitan

Etymology

From Latin color, colōrem.

Noun

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

  1. color, colour

Descendants


Old Portuguese

Noun

color f

  1. Alternative form of coor

Descendants

See also

Colors in Old Portuguese · coores, colores (layout · text)
     branco      gris      negro, preto
             vermello              _ ; castanno              amarelo
                          verde             
                                       azur
                          cardẽo              rosa

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin colōrem, singular accusative of color, from Old Latin colos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (to hide, conceal).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /koˈloɾ/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -oɾ

Noun

color m (plural colores)

  1. color, colour, hue
  2. rouge (cosmetics)
  3. pretext, motive, reason
  4. character
  5. side, party, faction
  6. race, ethnicity
  7. (poker) flush

Derived terms

See also

Colors in Spanish · colores (layout · text)
     blanco      gris      negro
             rojo ; carmín, carmesí              naranja, anaranjado ; marrón              amarillo ; crema
             lima              verde             
             cian ; azul-petróleo              azur              azul
             violeta ; añil, índigo              magenta ; morado, púrpura              rosa

Anagrams

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