Pigment definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (21)

American Heritage Dictionary (4)

noun A substance used as coloring.
noun Dry coloring matter, usually an insoluble powder, to be mixed with water, oil, or another base to produce paint and similar products.
noun A substance, such as chlorophyll or melanin, that produces a characteristic color in plant or animal tissue.

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Century Dictionary (11)

Any substance that is or can be used by painters to impart color to bodies; technically, a dry substance, usually in the form of a powder or in lumps so lightly held together as to be easily pulverized, which after it has been mixed with a liquid medium can be applied by painters to surfaces to be colored. Pigment is properly restricted to the dry coloring matter which when mixed with a vehicle becomes a. paint; but the two words are commonly used without discrimination. (See paint.) In oil-painting, the pigments are ground or triturated to render them smooth, usually in poppy- or nut-oil, since these dry best and do not deaden the colors. If you will allow me, Pyrophilus, for the avoiding of ambiguity, to employ the word pigments to signify such prepared materials (as cochineal, vermilion, orpiment) as painters, dyers, and other artificers make use of to impart or imitate particular colours. Boyle, Works, II. 48.
In biology, organic coloring matter; any organized substance whose presence in the tissues of animals and plants colors them. Pigment is the generic or indifferent term, most kinds of pigment having specific names. Coloring matter of one kind or another is almost universal in animals and plants, comparatively few of which are colorless. Pigments are very generally distributed in the integument and its appendages, as the skin, and especially the fur, feathers, scales, etc., of animals, and the leaves and other soft parts of plants. The dark color of the negro's skin is due to the abundance of pigment in the epidermis. The black appearance of the pupil of the eye is due to the heavy pigmentation of the choroid, and various colors of the iris depend upon specific pigments. Such coloring matters are often collected in special sacs which open and shut, producing the “shot” or play of color of the chameleon, dolphin, cuttlefish, and other animals. In many low animals and plants the color of the pigment is characteristic of genera, families, or even higher groups, as among infusorians, algals, etc. See cut under cell.
Highly spiced wine sweetened with honey; piment. It may be made with puttyng to pigment, Or piper, or sum other condiment. Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 155.

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Hidden within its royal purple pigment is the magic that makes it nature's perfect energy fruit. — IGN PC
The pigment is actually a waste product of the now closed Falun copper mine, and first referred to in about 1570. — RSS — Articles on Sweden.se
"The pigment is a cue to get the mantle in register so it builds the right shaped shell, and is only an epiphenomenon reflecting neural activity," Oster said. — EurekAlert! - Breaking News
It is suggested that these granules are age-pigment which is the product of peroxidation of cellular constituents. — CiteULike: Everyone's library
Student grade paints have less pigment, and often are formulated using two or more less expensive pigments. — WarCry Network : Latest News

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dye · ink · mineral · tint · resin · varnish · oxide · glue · coloring · hydrocarbon · chemical · fibers

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, spice, red dye, from Latin pigmentum, from pingere, to paint; see peig- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

from Middle English pigment, spiced wine (see piment), from Old French pigment (also piment), French pigment, from Latin pigmentum, a pigment, from pingere (√ pig), paint: see picture.

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