PIGMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pigment mean? 

• PIGMENT (noun)
  The noun PIGMENT has 3 senses:

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

2. any substance whose presence in plant or animal tissues produces a characteristic color

3. 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

  Familiarity information: PIGMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

• PIGMENT (verb)
  The verb PIGMENT has 2 senses:

1. acquire pigment; become colored or imbued

2. color or dye with a pigment

  Familiarity information: PIGMENT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PIGMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

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

color; coloring material; colour; colouring material (any material used for its color)

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

iron blue; Prussian blue (any of various blue pigments)

Chinese white; zinc white (a white pigment used in house paints; consists of zinc oxide)

Payne's gray; Payne's grey (any pigment that produces a greyish to dark greyish blue)

alizarin; alizarine (an orange-red crystalline compound used in making red pigments and in dyeing)

bole (a soft oily clay used as a pigment (especially a reddish brown pigment))

lake (any of numerous bright translucent organic pigments)

lake (a purplish red pigment prepared from lac or cochineal)

orange (any pigment producing the orange color)

water-color; water-colour; watercolor; watercolour (water-soluble pigment)

retinal; retinene (either of two yellow to red retinal pigments formed from rhodopsin by the action of light)

Paris green (a toxic double salt of copper arsenate and copper acetate)

sepia (rich brown pigment prepared from the ink of cuttlefishes)

porphyrin (any of various pigments distributed widely in living tissues)

haem; haemitin; hematin; heme; protoheme (a complex red organic pigment containing iron and other atoms to which oxygen binds)

haemosiderin; hemosiderin (a granular brown substance composed of ferric oxide; left from the breakdown of hemoglobin; can be a sign of disturbed iron metabolism)

ultramarine; ultramarine blue (blue pigment made of powdered lapis lazuli)

photopigment (a special pigment found in the rods and cones of the retina)

cadmium yellow (pigment of cadmium sulfide and barium sulfate varying in hue from lemon yellow to orange)

cupric acetate; verdigris (a blue or green powder used as a paint pigment)

ceruse; lead carbonate; white lead (a poisonous white pigment that contains lead)

mosaic gold; stannic sulfide (a yellow pigment sometimes suspended in lacquer)

chlorophyl; chlorophyll (any of a group of green pigments found in photosynthetic organisms; there are four naturally occurring forms)

bacteriochlorophyll (a substance in photosensitive bacteria that is related to but different from chlorophyll of higher plants)

phycobilin (water-soluble proteinaceous pigments found in red algae and cyanobacteria)

phycoerythrin (red pigment in red algae)

phycocyanin (blue pigment in algae)

titania; titanic oxide; titanium dioxide; titanium oxide (a white powder used as a pigment for its high covering power and durability)

cobalt blue; cobalt ultramarine (greenish-blue pigment consisting essentially of cobalt oxide and alumina)

earth color (a colored mineral used as a pigment)

ivory black (a black pigment made from grinding burnt ivory in oil)

carotenoid (any of a class of highly unsaturated yellow to red pigments occurring in plants and animals)

animal pigment (pigment occurring in animals)

cerulean blue (light greenish-blue pigment consisting essentially of oxides of cobalt and tin)

chrome green (any of a class of green pigments consisting of chrome yellow and iron blue)

Hooker's green (green pigment consisting of Prussian blue mixed with gamboge)

chrome yellow (any of several yellow pigments consisting of normal lead chromate and other lead compounds)

bister; bistre (a water-soluble brownish-yellow pigment made by boiling wood soot)

flavonoid (any of a large class of plant pigments having a chemical structure based on or similar to flavone)

Indian red (a red pigment composed in part from ferric oxide which is often used in paints and cosmetics)

Holonyms ("pigment" is a substance of...):

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:

pigment (color or dye with a pigment)

pigment (acquire pigment; become colored or imbued)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any substance whose presence in plant or animal tissues produces a characteristic color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

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

color; coloring material; colour; colouring material (any material used for its color)

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

paint; pigment

Context example:

artists use 'paint' and 'pigment' interchangeably

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

coat; coating (a thin layer covering something)

color; coloring material; colour; colouring material (any material used for its color)

Meronyms (substance of "pigment"):

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

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

antifouling paint (a paint used to protect against the accumulation of barnacles etc. on underwater surfaces)

acrylic; acrylic paint (used especially by artists)

water-base paint (paint in which water is used as the vehicle)

spray paint (paint applied with a spray gun)

semigloss (a paint that dries with a finish between glossy and flat)

oil paint (paint in which a drying oil is the vehicle)

house paint; housepaint (paint used to cover the exterior woodwork of a house)

finger paint; fingerpaint (paint that has the consistency of jelly)

encaustic (a paint consisting of pigment mixed with melted beeswax; it is fixed with heat after application)

enamel (a paint that dries to a hard glossy finish)

distemper (paint made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder)

coat of paint (a layer of paint covering something else)

• PIGMENT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they pigment    ... he / she / it pigments   
Past simple: pigmented   
Past participle: pigmented   
-ing form: pigmenting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Acquire pigment; become colored or imbued

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

hue (take on color or become colored)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

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

pigmentation (coloration of living tissues by pigment)

pigmentation (the deposition of pigment in animals or plants or human beings)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Color or dye with a pigment

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

pigment a photograph

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

color; color in; colorise; colorize; colour; colour in; colourise; colourize (add color to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

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

 Context examples 

RPE65 is necessary for the regeneration of visual pigment within the photoreceptors and is an essential component for vision.

(Researchers rescue photoreceptors, prevent blindness in animal models of retinal degeneration, National Institutes of Health)

The pigments are spread out to show their colour, or squeezed together to make the cell clear.

(Colour-changing artificial ‘chameleon skin’ powered by nanomachines, University of Cambridge)

A melanoma characterized by the complete absence of melanin pigment in the melanoma cells.

(Amelanotic melanoma, NCI Thesaurus)

A type of skin cancer in which the cells do not make the pigment melanin.

(Amelanotic melanoma, NCI Dictionary)

An abnormality in the formation or distribution of pigment, especially in the skin.

(Abnormal Pigmentation, NCI Thesaurus)

It presents as a pigmented, intraocular tumor.

(Melanocytoma of the Eyeball, NCI Thesaurus)

This allele, which encodes microphthalmia-associated transcription factor protein, plays a role in both the differentiation of various cell types and the development of melanocytes in the retinal pigment epithelium.

(MITF wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Mammals do not have melanophores; however they have retained smaller pigment cells known as MELANOCYTES.

(Murine Melanophores, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

“There are pigments, brush, and paper,” said the old artist.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Pigments that give a characteristic color to bile including: BILIRUBIN, BILIVERDINE, and bilicyanin.

(Bile Pigment, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)