Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having color: colored tissue paper.
- adj. Often Offensive Of or belonging to a racial group not categorized as white.
- adj. Often Offensive Black or African-American.
- adj. Often Offensive Of mixed racial descent.
- adj. South African Of or belonging to a population grouping made up of persons of mixed racial descent or of certain other nonwhite descent, especially as distinguished during apartheid from Blacks, Asians, or whites.
- adj. Distorted or biased, as by irrelevant or incorrect information.
- n. Offensive A person belonging to a racial group not categorized as white.
- n. Offensive A Black person; an African American.
- n. Offensive A person of mixed racial descent.
- n. South African A person belonging to the Coloured population grouping, especially during apartheid.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having a color; dyed; tinged; painted or stained.
- Having a distinguishing hue. Having some other hue than white or black, especially a bright or vivid hue, as red, purple, blue, etc.: as, a colored ribbon.
- In botany, of any hue but green: as, a colored leaf.
- Having a dark or black color of the skin; black or mulatto; specifically, in the United States, belonging wholly or partly to the African race; having or partaking of the color of the negro. In census-tables, etc., the term is often used to include Indians, Chinese, etc.
- Hence— Of or pertaining to the negroes, or to persons partly of negro origin: as, the colored vote.
- Having a specious appearance; deceptive: as, a colored statement.—Colored glass. See glass.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a particular color or kind of color.
- adj. Having prominent colors; colorful.
- adj. Influenced pervasively but subtly.
- adj. US, older usage, now demeaning Of skin color other than the white, particularly black.
- adj. South Africa, potentially offensive Of neither black nor white skin color.
- n. A colored person.
- n. A colored article of clothing.
- v. Simple past tense and past participle of color.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- adj. Specious; plausible; adorned so as to appear well.
- adj. Of some other color than black or white.
- adj. (Ethnol.) Of some other color than white; having a skin color darker than that of caucasian people; mostly applied to negroes or persons having negro blood. Opposite of
white andcaucasian . - adj. (Bot.) Of some other color than green.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having color or a certain color; sometimes used in combination
- adj. having skin rich in melanin pigments
- n. a United States term for Blacks that is now considered offensive
- adj. (used of color) artificially produced; not natural
- adj. favoring one person or side over another
Examples
“I said somewhere in the early part of this narrative that because the colored man looked at everything through the prism of his relationship to society as a _colored_ man, and because most of his mental efforts ran through the narrow channel bounded by his rights and his wrongs, it was to be wondered at that he has progressed so broadly as he has.”
“˜colored™ because it is impossible for something to be red and not colored.”
“According to journalist Clifton Johnson in 1904, the word was used to refer to blacks in the South and was chosen primarily for it's derogatory value, being considered more offensive than the term "colored," another term commonly used to refer to people of African descent at the time.”
The Huffington Post: Hayley Rose Horzepa: The N-Word, The B-Word, and Rihanna
“In some parts of Africa, the word colored is applied to those of mixed white and black ancestry.”
Simon & Schuster: Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage
“It's an absurd reaction to the phrase 'colored people' but is, in effect, the same thing.”
“Additionally, what he failed to consider is that this country has made the term "colored" inappropriate because of the social and cultural context with which it was used.”
“It is inconceivable to me how a person can add syllables to the word "colored," yet Howard found a way.”
“So, Angela couldn’t think of a tactful way to tell a woman who’d known her since she was a thieving child that the term colored was woefully outmoded.”
“And, as I never tire of pointing out, it has a title card done in colored pencil.”
“I also like the pumpkin colored mud dog lizard, or I place a small weight in front of a Rebel Popper.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘colored’.
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Jazz Era
Swingin' and boppin' slang-a-lang.
mooche, moocher, kick the gong around, applesauce, the berries, hooch, juice joint, the john, rummy, screaming meemies, daddy, cokey and 66 more...
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Prosie: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ad...
(Given Saturday, March 4, 1865, Washington, D.C.)
Fellow-Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended a...with all nations, among ourselves, a just and lastin..., cherish, achieve, to do all, for his widow and..., to care for him w..., to bind up the na..., let us strive on ..., with firmness in ..., with charity for all and 169 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Nana Words
My Nana, that is.
piazza, warsh, slim, listen here, dickens, chrisapoo, mine, young man, young lady, waste paper basket, behave, parlor and 15 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for colored.
madmouth 'colored' has, in my eyes, always been one of those words that ran away from its origins as an insult and assumed compelling descriptive power. I find the phrase 'advancement of colored people' sophisticated and quite moving. May 7, 2009
seanahan It's always seemed weird to me that it is part of the group NAACP. Rappers calling each other the n-word is one thing, but that and the United Negro College Fund seem very different. May 2, 2009
madmouth as an insult, it has an inherent kick in the ass for the hurlers thereof. May 1, 2009