color
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: note: UK, etc
enpr: kŭlʹə
ipa: /ˈkʌl.ə/
note: UK, etc
rhymes: -ʌlə(ɹ)
ipa: /ˈkʌl.ə(ɹ)/
ipa: [ˈkʰʌl.ə(ɹ)]
ipa: [ˈkʌləɹ]
ipa: [ˈkʰɐɫ.ɐ]
note: Indic
ipa: [ˈkɐl.ɐ(ɾ)]
enpr: kŭlʹər
ipa: /ˈkʌl.ɚ/
rhymes: -ʌlə(ɹ)
enpr: ko͝olʹər
ipa: /ˈkʊl.ə(ɹ)/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈkʊl.ɚ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈkʊlɐ/
homophone: culler (most accents)
Forms: form: colors
form: colour
form: usage notes
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).
Senses: examples: text: Humans and birds can perceive color.
synonyms: word: blee
glosses: The spectral composition of visible light.
examples: text: Most languages have names for the colors black, white, red, and green.
text: What color are your bf's eyes?
text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A subset thereof:
A particular set of visible spectral compositions, perceived or named as a class.
synonyms: word: hue
word: blee
examples: text: The accident victim's face was white, drained of all color.
glosses: A subset thereof:
Hue as opposed to achromatic colors (black, white and grays).
synonyms: word: hue
word: shade
word: blee
examples: text: This film is broadcast in color. Most people dream in color, but some dream in black and white.
glosses: A subset thereof:
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).
synonyms: color television
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A subset thereof:
Any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms, including azure, gules, sable, and vert.
coordinate_terms: metal
stain
fur
examples: text: The artist took out her colors and began work on a landscape.
glosses: A paint.
examples: text: Color has been a sensitive issue in many societies.
synonyms: complexion
ethnicity
race
glosses: Human skin tone, especially as an indicator of race or ethnicity.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Skin color, noted as normal, jaundiced, cyanotic, flush, mottled, pale, or ashen as part of the skin signs assessment.
examples: text: […] 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.
ref: 1864, Sir Henry Stewart Cunningham, Late Laurels, volumes 1-2, page 117:
glosses: A flushed appearance of blood in the face; redness of complexion.
examples: text: color commentator
text: color commentary
text: There is a great deal of colour in his writing.
text: a bit of local color
text: 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 […]
ref: 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:
text: Could you give me some color with regards to which products made up the mix of revenue for this quarter?
glosses: Richness of expression; detail or flavour that is likely to generate interest or enjoyment.
examples: text: The loss of their colors destroyed the regiment's morale.
glosses: A standard, flag, or insignia:
A standard or banner.
synonyms: banner
standard
examples: text: The colors were raised over the new territory.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: A standard, flag, or insignia:
The flag of a nation or team.
examples: text: Both of the perpetrators were wearing colors.
glosses: A standard, flag, or insignia:
Gang insignia.
examples: text: He was awarded colors for his football.
glosses: An award for sporting achievement, particularly within a school or university.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: The morning ceremony of raising the flag.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A property of quarks, with three values called red, green, and blue, which they can exchange by passing gluons; color charge.
topics: business
finance
glosses: 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.
topics: media
publishing
typography
glosses: The relative lightness or darkness of a mass of written or printed text on a page. (See type color on Wikipedia.Wikipedia)
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
snooker
sports
glosses: Any of the colored balls excluding the reds.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2011, David Baldacci, The Collectors:
glosses: A front or facade; an ostensible truth actually false; pretext.
examples: text: Under color of law, he managed to bilk taxpayers of millions of dollars.
text: 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.
ref: 1882, The Ohio Law Journal, volume 2, page 396:
text: 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.
ref: 1770, “Parliamentary Privilege Act 1770”, in legislation.gov.uk:
glosses: An appearance of right or authority; color of law.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2013, Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries, London: Granta, published 2014, →ISBN, page 184:
topics: business
mining
glosses: Gold, particles of gold found when prospecting.
examples: text: The local hero is getting color in tonight's spectacle.
topics: government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
professional-wrestling
sports
war
wrestling
glosses: To bleed, either through injury or blading. Usally prefaced with "get".
examples: text: In other words, Brahms saves the higher violin color for the more important foreground statement and assigns the soft swirling background to middle-register violins and violas, while the cellos dominate in their best voice.
ref: 1982, Samuel Adler, The Study of Orchestration, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, published 1982, →ISBN, page 115:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Timbre, often in relation to orchestration.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: The quality of a particular vowel sound.
Synonyms: sense: measure of derivative price sensitivity
word: colour
sense: measure of derivative price sensitivity
word: DgammaDtime
sense: measure of derivative price sensitivity
word: gamma decay
word: blee
word: color
word: hue
word: shade
word: tincture
word: tint
Hypernyms: sense: measure of derivative price sensitivity
english: includes list of coordinate terms
translation: includes list of coordinate terms
word: Greeks
word: physical property
Hyponyms: word: accidental color
word: bodycolor
word: color of law
word: deep color
word: eye color
word: forecolor
word: high color
word: hypercolor
word: local color
word: noncolor
word: primary color
word: prismatic colors
word: process color
word: pseudocolor
word: secondary color
word: skin color
word: tertiary color
word: topcolor
word: true color
word: true colors
word: undercolor
word: watercolor
word: web color
word: black
word: white
word: red
word: green
word: blue
word: yellow
word: orange
word: brown
word: pink
word: purple
word: violet
word: scarlet
word: magenta
word: coffee
Derived terms: 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 charge
color code
color-code
color coded
color-coded
color commentator
color compass
color confinement
color-coordinate
color coordinate
color coordinate system
color coordination
color depth
colored
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
color killer
colorless
color line
colormaker
colormaking
colorman
color man
colormap
color me
color-octet
color of authority
color of law
color of office
color of someone's money
color of title
colorogenic
colorologist
colorology
coloron
colorous
color pencil
colorphobia
colorphobic
color photography
color pigeon
color pop
color-proud
color proud
colorpuncture
color revolution
color-screw
color screw
color separation
colorsome
color space
color story
color-struck
color television
color temperature
color timing
color triangle
color TV
colortype
color war
colorway
color wheel
colorwise
colorwork
complementary color
discolor
discoloration
duocolor
false-color
Finlaycolor
flame-color
flesh-colored
flying colors
forecolor
four color
four color problem
four color theorem
full color
give color to
grapheme-color
haircolor
horse of a different color
hyperbolic color
hypercolor
impossible color
in color
in flying colors
in living color
intercolor
lend color to
lip color
monocolor
multicolor
multicolored
multicolors
noncolor
of color
off-color
pair of colors
pentacolor
person of color
play of color
poster color
prismatic colors
pseudocolor
quadricolor
quincolor
rainbow color
rainbow-colored
real-color
show one's true colors
spot color
sulfur-color
Technicolor
technicolored
The Color Purple
tone color
topcolor
tricolor
Tricolor
troop the color
true-color
true colors
turn one's color
type color
uncolor
undercolor
unicolor
unicolored
watercolor
wax-color
what color is the sun in your world
what color is your Bugatti
with flying colors
Related terms: word: :Category:Colors
word: Appendix:Colors