COLOUR

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does colour mean? 

• COLOUR (noun)
  The noun COLOUR has 7 senses:

1. any material used for its color

2. (physics) the characteristic of quarks that determines their role in the strong interaction

3. interest and variety and intensity

4. the timbre of a musical sound

5. a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

6. an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading

7. the appearance of objects (or light sources) described in terms of a person's perception of their hue and lightness (or brightness) and saturation

  Familiarity information: COLOUR used as a noun is common.

• COLOUR (adjective)
  The adjective COLOUR has 1 sense:

1. having or capable of producing colors

  Familiarity information: COLOUR used as an adjective is very rare.

• COLOUR (verb)
  The verb COLOUR has 6 senses:

1. modify or bias

2. decorate with colors

3. give a deceptive explanation or excuse for

4. affect as in thought or feeling

5. add color to

6. change color, often in an undesired manner

  Familiarity information: COLOUR used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLOUR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any material used for its color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

color; coloring material; colour; colouring material

Context example:

she used a different color for the trim

Hypernyms ("colour" is a kind of...):

material; stuff (the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colour"):

indicator ((chemistry) a substance that changes color to indicate the presence of some ion or substance; can be used to indicate the completion of a chemical reaction or (in medicine) to test for a particular reaction)

stain ((microscopy) a dye or other coloring material that is used in microscopy to make structures visible)

pigment (any substance whose presence in plant or animal tissues produces a characteristic color)

pigment (dry coloring material (especially a powder to be mixed with a liquid to produce paint, etc.))

hematochrome (a reddish coloring material found in some algae)

tincture (a substance that colors or dyes)

dye; dyestuff (a usually soluble substance for staining or coloring e.g. fabrics or hair)

mordant (a substance used to treat leather or other materials before dyeing; aids in dyeing process)

paint; pigment (a substance used as a coating to protect or decorate a surface (especially a mixture of pigment suspended in a liquid); dries to form a hard coating)

Derivation:

colour (change color, often in an undesired manner)

colour (decorate with colors)

colour (modify or bias)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(physics) the characteristic of quarks that determines their role in the strong interaction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

color; colour

Context example:

each flavor of quarks comes in three colors

Hypernyms ("colour" is a kind of...):

form; kind; sort; variety (a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality)

Domain category:

high-energy physics; high energy physics; particle physics (the branch of physics that studies subatomic particles and their interactions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Interest and variety and intensity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

color; colour; vividness

Context example:

the characters were delineated with exceptional vividness

Hypernyms ("colour" is a kind of...):

interest; interestingness (the power of attracting or holding one's attention (because it is unusual or exciting etc.))

Attribute:

colorful; colourful (having much or varied color)

colorless; colourless (weak in color; not colorful)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The timbre of a musical sound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

color; coloration; colour; colouration

Context example:

the recording fails to capture the true color of the original music

Hypernyms ("colour" is a kind of...):

quality; timber; timbre; tone ((music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound))

Sense 5

Meaning:

A visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

color; coloring; colour; colouring

Context example:

a white color is made up of many different wavelengths of light

Hypernyms ("colour" is a kind of...):

visual property (an attribute of vision)

Attribute:

uncolored; uncoloured (without color)

colored; colorful; coloured (having color or a certain color; sometimes used in combination)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colour"):

chromatic color; chromatic colour; spectral color; spectral colour (a color that has hue)

dithered color; dithered colour; nonsolid color; nonsolid colour (a color produced by a pattern of differently colored dots that together simulate the desired color)

complexion; skin color; skin colour (the coloring of a person's face)

coloration; colouration (appearance with regard to color)

achromatic color; achromatic colour (a color lacking hue; white or grey or black)

shade; tincture; tint; tone (a quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color)

mottle (an irregular arrangement of patches of color)

heather; heather mixture (interwoven yarns of mixed colors producing muted greyish shades with flecks of color)

primary color; primary colour (any of three colors from which all others can be obtained by mixing)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

color; colour; gloss; semblance

Context example:

the situation soon took on a different color

Hypernyms ("colour" is a kind of...):

appearance; visual aspect (outward or visible aspect of a person or thing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colour"):

simulacrum (an insubstantial or vague semblance)

face value (the apparent worth as opposed to the real worth)

guise; pretence; pretense; pretext (an artful or simulated semblance)

camouflage; disguise (an outward semblance that misrepresents the true nature of something)

verisimilitude (the appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true)

color of law; colour of law (a mere semblance of legal right; something done with the apparent authority of law but actually in contravention of law)

Sense 7

Meaning:

The appearance of objects (or light sources) described in terms of a person's perception of their hue and lightness (or brightness) and saturation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

color; colour

Hypernyms ("colour" is a kind of...):

appearance; visual aspect (outward or visible aspect of a person or thing)

• COLOUR (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or capable of producing colors

Synonyms:

color; colour

Context example:

marvelous color illustrations

Domain category:

photography; picture taking (the act of taking and printing photographs)

• COLOUR (verb)

Conjugation:

Sense 1

Meaning:

Modify or bias

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

color; colour

Context example:

His political ideas color his lectures

Hypernyms (to "colour" is one way to...):

act upon; influence; work (have and exert influence or effect)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

colour (any material used for its color)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Decorate with colors

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

color; colour; emblazon

Context example:

color the walls with paint in warm tones

Hypernyms (to "colour" is one way to...):

adorn; beautify; decorate; embellish; grace; ornament (make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "colour"):

miniate (paint with red lead or vermilion)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

colour (any material used for its color)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Give a deceptive explanation or excuse for

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

color; colour; gloss

Context example:

color a lie

Hypernyms (to "colour" is one way to...):

apologise; apologize; excuse; rationalise; rationalize (defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Affect as in thought or feeling

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

color; colour; distort; tinge

Context example:

The sadness tinged his life

Hypernyms (to "colour" is one way to...):

affect; bear on; bear upon; impact; touch; touch on (have an effect upon)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Add color to

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

color; color in; colorise; colorize; colour; colour in; colourise; colourize

Context example:

colorize black and white film

Hypernyms (to "colour" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "colour"):

tinct; tinge; tint; touch (color lightly)

verdigris (color verdigris)

pigment (color or dye with a pigment)

hue; imbue (suffuse with color)

retouch (give retouches to (hair))

silver (make silver in color)

gray; grey (make grey)

tone (change to a color image)

redden (make red)

blotch; mottle; streak (mark with spots or blotches of different color or shades of color as if stained)

handcolor; handcolour (color by hand)

brown; embrown (make brown in color)

incarnadine (make flesh-colored)

pinkify (make pink)

aurify (turn golden)

empurple; purple; purpurate (color purple)

azure (color azure)

polychrome; polychromise; polychromize (color with many colors; make polychrome)

motley; parti-color (make motley; color with different colors)

blackwash (color with blackwash)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

colouring (a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect)

colouring (a digestible substance used to give color to food)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Change color, often in an undesired manner

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

color; colour; discolor; discolour

Context example:

The shirts discolored

Hypernyms (to "colour" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "colour"):

turn (change color)

blue (turn blue)

green (turn or become green)

tone (change the color or tone of)

yellow (turn yellow)

gray; grey (turn grey)

purple (become purple)

redden (turn red or redder)

silver (turn silver)

black; blacken; melanise; melanize (make or become black)

white; whiten (turn white)

burn; sunburn (get a sunburn by overexposure to the sun)

bronze; tan (get a tan, from wind or sun)

blanch; blench; pale (turn pale, as if in fear)

blush; crimson; flush; redden (turn red, as if in embarrassment or shame)

dye (color with dye)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

colour (any material used for its color)

colouring (the act or process of changing the color of something)

 Context examples 

The day seems different to me from every other day, and the light not of the same colour—of a sadder colour.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Without social transmission taking place in predator species such as great tits, it becomes extremely difficult for conspicuously coloured prey to outlast and outcompete alternative prey, even if they are distasteful or toxic.

(Birds learn from each other’s ‘disgust’, enabling insects to evolve bright colours, University of Cambridge)

If the paper strip changes its colour, it means that histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2) — a protein excreted only by P. falciparum in the first days after the infection — is present into the bloodstream.

(Biosensor promises early malaria diagnosis, SciDev.Net)

His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This time the sea looked a dark grey colour, and was overspread with curling waves and the ridges of foam.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

With our device, every pixel contains data points from across the visible spectrum, so we can acquire detailed information far beyond the colours which our eyes can perceive.

(Nanowires replace Newton’s famous glass prism, University of Cambridge)

Both nose and tongue had been scorched by the live thing, sun-coloured, that had grown up under Grey Beaver's hands.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A team led by ESO astronomer Giacomo Beccari has used these data of unparallelled quality to precisely measure the brightness and colours of all the stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster.

(A Tale of Three Stellar Cities, ESO)

These acts of violence have a common denominator: people of colour suffering violent attacks at the hands of white people.

(White people’s perceptions of the emotions on black people’s faces are less accurate than their perceptions among other white people, University of Granada)

Another issue is that ions can move around in the solar cell when illuminated, which can cause a change in the bandgap – the colour of light the material absorbs.

(Potassium gives perovskite-based solar cells an efficiency boost, University of Cambridge)