color

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. That aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of the light reflected or emitted by them, definable in terms of the observer or of the light, as:
2. n. The appearance of objects or light sources described in terms of the individual's perception of them, involving hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources.
3. n. The characteristics of light by which the individual is made aware of objects or light sources through the receptors of the eye, described in terms of dominant wavelength, luminance, and purity.
4. n. A substance, such as a dye, pigment, or paint, that imparts a hue.
5. n. The general appearance of the skin; complexion.
6. n. A ruddy complexion.
7. n. A reddening of the face; a blush.
8. n. The skin pigmentation of a person not categorized as white.
9. n. A flag or banner, as of a country or military unit.
10. n. The salute made during the ceremony of raising or lowering a flag.
11. n. A distinguishing symbol, badge, ribbon, or mark: the colors of a college.
12. n. One's opinion or position: Stick to your colors.
13. n. Character or nature. Often used in the plural: revealed their true colors.
14. n. Outward appearance, often deceptive: a tale with the merest color of truth.
15. n. Appearance of authenticity: testimony that lends color to an otherwise absurd notion.
16. n. Variety of expression.
17. n. Vivid, picturesque detail: a story with a lot of color in it.
18. n. Traits of personality or behavior that attract interest.
19. n. The use or effect of pigment in painting, as distinct from form.
20. n. Music Quality of tone or timbre.
21. n. Law A mere semblance of legal right.
22. n. A particle or bit of gold found in auriferous gravel or sand.
23. n. Physics A quantum characteristic of quarks that determines their role in the strong interaction.
24. v. To impart color to or change the color of.
25. v. To give a distinctive character or quality to; modify. See Synonyms at bias.
26. v. To exert an influence on; affect: The war colored the soldier's life.
27. v. To misrepresent, especially by distortion or exaggeration: color the facts.
28. v. To gloss over; excuse: a parent who colored the children's lies.
29. v. To take on color.
30. v. To change color.
31. v. To become red in the face; blush.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Objectively, that quality of a thing or appearance which is perceived by the eye alone, independently of the form of thing; subjectively, a sensation, or the class of sensations, peculiar to the organ of vision, and arising from stimulation of the optic nerve. The proper stimulus to the sensation of color is light radiated from a luminous body or reflected from the surface of a non-luminous body; but it can be induced by other means, as by an electric shock. When a ray of white light is analyzed, as by a prism, into parts each of a definite wave-length, the parts show the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, which form a continuous spectrum, each color shading gradually into the next. (See light and spectrum.) These colors have been termed primary or simple, though in fact they do not excite simple color-sensations. If the colors of the spectrum are recombined, white light reappears. Similarly, if two colors which lie near together in the spectrum, both on the same side of light of wave-length 0.524 micron, are mixed (for example, if two rays of colored light are thrown upon the same spot so as to be reflected from it together), the intermediate colors are nearly produced. If, however, the colors, being on different sides of that point, are taken further and further apart in the spectrum, the mixture becomes gradually whiter (less saturated) until two colors are found which produce pure white light. If the colors are still further removed, a purple results. Those pairs of colors which when mixed produce white or gray light are called complementary colors; such are red and green-blue, orange and blue, yellow and indigo-blue, green-yellow and violet. The sensations produced by the different parts of the spectrum, however, vary with the intensity of the light: thus, orange when highly illuminated looks more yellow than when darker, and the main effect of increasing the illumination of a color is to add a yellow color-sensation, called the color of brightness. If, instead of mixing spectral colors, colored pigments are mixed, very different results are obtained: thus, while spectral blue and yellow produce white, blue and yellow pigments produce green. This is due to the fact that the blue pigment absorbs neatly all the yellow and red light, while the yellow pigment absorbs the blue and violet light, so that only the green remains to be reflected. Colors vary in chroma, or freedom from admixture of white light; in brightness or luminosity; and in hue, which roughly corresponds to the mean wavelength of the light emitted. The numbers which measure these quantities, as well as any other system of three numbers for defining colors, are called constants of color. Pure white light and darkness are not ordinarily regarded as colors; but white and black objects are commonly spoken of as colored, although the former reflect and the latter absorb all the rays of light without separating them into colors properly so called.
2. n. In painting: The general effect of all the hues entering into the composition of a picture.
3. n. An effect of brilliancy combined with harmony: said either of a work in different colors or of a work in monochrome, or of an engraving: as, the picture has no color; the engraving is full of color.
4. n. Any distinguishing hue, or the condition of having a distinguishing hue—that is, a hue different from that which prevails among objects of the kind concerned, whether the prevailing hue be positive, as green, or neutral or negative, as white or black; hence, in a picture or view, or in a fabric or other material dyed or painted, any hue, especially a pure tint (often implying a vivid one), other than black and white; in human beings, from the standpoint of the white races, a hue or complexion other than white, and especially black; in botany, any hue except green. See colored, 2.
5. n. The natural hue of the face; a red or reddish tint; flush; blush; complexion in general.
6. n. That which is used for coloring; a pigment; paint.
7. n. plural A flag, ensign, or standard, such as is borne in a military body, or by a ship: so called from being usually marked by a particular combination of colors: sometimes used as a singular noun. See flag.
8. n. A distinctive marking by color or colors, as of a badge or dress; specially colored insignia; hence, any symbol or mark of identification: as, the colors of a party; the colors of a boxer; the colors of a rider or an owner in a horserace.
9. n. An ornament of style.
10. n. Kind; sort; variety; character; description.
11. n. Appearance; aspect.
12. n. That which serves to hide the real character of something and give a false appearance; mere appearance; false show; pretense; guise.
13. n. Reason; ground; especially, good reason; excuse.
14. n. An apparent or prima facie right, pretext, or ground: especially used in legal phraseology, and commonly implying falsity or some defect of strict right: as, to extort money under color of office; to hold possession under color of title.
15. n. In mining, a particle or scale of gold, as shown when auriferous gravel or sand is panned or washed out with the batea or horn-spoon.
16. n. In phrenology, one of the perceptive faculties, its supposed function being that of giving the power of perceiving colors or of distinguishing their shades.
17. n. In heraldry See tincture.
18. n. Animation; vividness.
19. n. In music: The various rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic characteristics in a composition which constitute its individuality, as variations in rhythm, melodic decorations or figures, intentional discords, etc. The use of the term is traceable to the early use of colored lines to assist in the interpretation of the neumæ, and also of colored notes and other signs in the mensural-music.
20. n. The timbre or quality of a musical tone. See timbre.
21. n. Redness of the complexion.
22. n. A general system of light and shadow upon which the modeling and tinting of details is executed; chiaroscuro.
23. n. Distinct characteristics, peculiarities, or individuality: said of a place, a country, a period, etc.
24. n. Hence— Analogous characteristics in a literary composition.
25. n. The colors red, yellow, and blue, from the mixture of which it was erroneously supposed (from the facts of the mechanical mixture of pigments) all other colors could be produced.
26. n. The red, green, and violet light of the spectrum, from the mixture of which all other colors can be produced. Also called fundamental colors.
27. n. Any very brilliant or decided color.
28. n. In painting, color in which each hue is lighted or shaded only with a modification of itself, and not with a totally different hue. Thus, a brick wall painted in pure color will be red in both sunlight and shadow, as distinguished from a representation of such a wall as red in the sun, and blue, gray, or brown in the shade.
29. n. A painting done in such pigments.
30. n. Synonyms Shade, Tint, etc. See hue.
31. n. Plea, pretext, semblance, disguise.
32. To give or apply a color to; change or alter the color or hue of; dye; tinge; paint; stain.
33. Figuratively— To cause to appear different from the reality; give a specious appearance to; set in a fair light; palliate; excuse; make plausible.
34. To give a special character or distinguishing quality to, analogous to color in a material object.
35. To become red in the face; flush; blush: as, he colored from bashfulness: often followed by up.
36. n. plural In faro, a system of play by which the cards bet upon are selected according to the color of the first winner or first loser.
37. n. plural The commission of ensign in the British military service; usually a pair of colours.
38. n. In calico-printing, any mordant or pigment that is printed on cloth, made into a paste by means of some thickening substance, as starch, gum, etc.
39. n. Color which has no reflections.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The spectral composition of visible light
2. n. A particular set of visible spectral compositions, perceived or named as a class; blee.
3. n. uncountable Hue as opposed to achromatic colors (black, white and grays).
4. n. uncountable Human skin tone, especially as an indicator of race or ethnicity.
5. n. figuratively Interest, especially in a selective area.
6. n. heraldry Any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms, including azure, gules, sable, and vert. Contrast with metal.
7. n. in the plural A standard or banner.
8. n. The system of color television.
9. n. in the plural An award for sporting achievement, particularly within a school or university.
10. n. 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.
11. n. physics A property of quarks, with three values called red, green, and blue, which they can exchange by passing gluons.
12. n. typography The relative lightness or darkness of a mass of written or printed text on a page.
13. n. snooker Any of the colored balls excluding the reds.
14. n. A front or facade: an ostensible truth actually false.
15. n. An appearance of right or authority.
16. n. medicine Skin color noted as: normal, jaundice, cyanotic, flush, mottled, pale, or ashen as part of the skin signs assessment.
17. adj. Conveying color, as opposed to shades of gray.
18. v. To give something color.
19. v. intransitive To apply colors to the areas within the boundaries of a line drawing using colored markers or crayons.
20. v. of a face To become red through increased blood flow.
21. v. To affect without completely changing.
22. v. informal To attribute a quality to.
23. v. 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.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A property depending on the relations of light to the eye, by which individual and specific differences in the hues and tints of objects are apprehended in vision
2. n. Any hue distinguished from white or black.
3. n. The hue or color characteristic of good health and spirits; ruddy complexion.
4. n. That which is used to give color; a paint; a pigment.
5. n. That which covers or hides the real character of anything; semblance; excuse; disguise; appearance.
6. n. Shade or variety of character; kind; species.
7. n. A distinguishing badge, as a flag or similar symbol (usually in the plural).
8. n. (Law) An apparent right; as where the defendant in trespass gave to the plaintiff an appearance of title, by stating his title specially, thus removing the cause from the jury to the court.
9. v. To change or alter the hue or tint of, by dyeing, staining, painting, etc.; to dye; to tinge; to paint; to stain.
10. v. To change or alter, as if by dyeing or painting; to give a false appearance to; usually, to give a specious appearance to; to cause to appear attractive; to make plausible; to palliate or excuse.
11. v. obsolete To hide.
12. v. To acquire color; to turn red, especially in the face; to blush.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the timbre of a musical sound
2. n. a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks)
3. adj. having or capable of producing colors
4. n. any material used for its color
5. v. give a deceptive explanation or excuse for
6. n. the appearance of objects (or light sources) described in terms of a person's perception of their hue and lightness (or brightness) and saturation
7. v. change color, often in an undesired manner
8. v. decorate with colors
9. n. a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect
10. v. affect as in thought or feeling
11. v. add color to
12. n. interest and variety and intensity
13. n. (physics) the characteristic of quarks that determines their role in the strong interaction
14. n. an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading
15. v. modify or bias