color

Humans and birds can perceive color.

(uncountable) The spectral composition of visible light.

The spectral composition of visible light.

Most languages have names for the colors black, white, red, and green.

Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(countable) A particular set of visible spectral compositions, perceived or named as a class.

The accident victim's face was white, drained of all color.

(uncountable) Hue as opposed to achromatic colors (black, white and grays).

This film is broadcast in color. Most people dream in color, but some dream in black and white.

These hues as used in color television or films, color photographs, etc (as opposed to the shades of grey used in black-and-white television).

(heraldry) Any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms, including azure, gules, sable, and vert.

The artist took out her colors and began work on a landscape.

Color has been a sensitive issue in many societies.

(uncountable) Human skin tone, especially as an indicator of race or ethnicity.

(medicine) Skin color, noted as normal, jaundiced, cyanotic, flush, mottled, pale, or ashen as part of the skin signs assessment.

[…] her very embarrassment wore a graceful air; her high colour had softened down to a warm, delicate tint; and her dress, which looked beautifully new and fresh, was in good taste, and showed her off to advantage.

1864, Sir Henry Stewart Cunningham, Late Laurels, volumes 1-2, page 117:

A flushed appearance of blood in the face; redness of complexion.

color commentator, color commentary

There is a great deal of colour in his writing.

a bit of local color

Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]

1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 377, column 2:

Could you give me some color with regards to which products made up the mix of revenue for this quarter?

(figuratively) Richness of expression; detail or flavour that is likely to generate interest or enjoyment.

The loss of their colors destroyed the regiment's morale.

A standard, flag, or insignia:
(in the plural) A standard or banner.

A standard, flag, or insignia:
A standard or banner.

The colors were raised over the new territory.

The arrival of the British Consul at Bangkok shall not take place before the ratification of this Treaty, nor until ten vessels owned by British subjects, sailing under British colours and with British papers, shall have entered the port of Bangkok for purposes of trade, subsequent to the signing of this Treaty.

1856, “Treaty signed April 18, 1855; ratified April 5, 1856”, in Treaty of friendship and commerce between Great Britain and Siam, Bangkok: J. H. Chandler, page 7:

(in the plural) The flag of a nation or team.

A standard, flag, or insignia:
The flag of a nation or team.

Both of the perpetrators were wearing colors.

A standard, flag, or insignia:
(in the plural) Gang insignia.

A standard, flag, or insignia:
Gang insignia.

He was awarded colors for his football.

(in the plural) An award for sporting achievement, particularly within a school or university.

(military, in the plural) The morning ceremony of raising the flag.

The morning ceremony of raising the flag.

(physics) A property of quarks, with three values called red, green, and blue, which they can exchange by passing gluons; color charge.

(finance, uncountable) A third-order measure of derivative price sensitivity, expressed as the rate of change of gamma with respect to time, or equivalently the rate of change of charm with respect to changes in the underlying asset price.

(typography) The relative lightness or darkness of a mass of written or printed text on a page. (See type color on Wikipedia.Wikipedia)

(snooker) Any of the colored balls excluding the reds.

Any of the colored balls excluding the reds.

At the far end of the continuum, Roger Seagraves collected personal items from people he'd murdered, or assassinated rather, since he'd done it under the color of serving his country.

A front or facade; an ostensible truth actually false; pretext.

Under color of law, he managed to bilk taxpayers of millions of dollars.

The only thing which this defendant is accused of doing is that he excluded this boy from the school, and he did it under the color of the statute relating to the subject, and did it because he was a colored boy.

1882, The Ohio Law Journal, volume 2, page 396:

no such action, suit, or any other process or proceeding thereupon shall at any time be impeached, stayed, or delayed by or under colour or pretence of any privilege of Parliament.

1770, “Parliamentary Privilege Act 1770”, in legislation.gov.uk:

An appearance of right or authority; color of law.

He smelted Wells’s colour before it was valued, and by the time anybody saw it, it had been poured into bars and stamped with the Reserve seal.

2013, Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries, London: Granta, published 2014, →ISBN, page 184:

(mining) Gold, particles of gold found when prospecting.

en-noun

color (countable and uncountable, plural colors)

A Dictionary of the English Language
Noah Webster
Samuel Johnson
Webster's Dictionary
color

velkleur

human skin tone, especially as an indicator of race or ethnicity

колори́т

interest, especially in a selective area

kleur

any of the standard dark tinctures used in a coat of arms

From Middle English colour, color, borrowed from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, color, from Latin color.
Displaced English blee, Middle English blee (“color”), from Old English blēo. Also partially replaced Old English hīew (“color”) and its descendants (English hue), which is less often used in this sense. Doublet of couleur.
The spelling color was popularized in modern American English by Noah Webster, to match the spelling of the word's Latin etymon, and make all American spellings of the derivatives consistent (colorimeter, coloration, colorize, colorless, etc).


color

Color television and movies were considered a great improvement over black and white.

Conveying color, as opposed to shades of gray.


color

We could color the walls red.

(transitive) To cause (a pipe, especially a meerschaum) to take on a brown or black color, by smoking.

My kindergartener loves to color.

(intransitive) To apply colors to the areas within the boundaries of a line drawing using colored markers or crayons.

Her face colored as she realized her mistake.

(of a person or their face) To become red through increased blood flow.

That interpretation certainly colors my perception of the book.

Color me confused.

They tried to colour the industrial unrest as a merely local matter.

(informal) To attribute a quality to; to portray (as).

Can this graph be 2-colored?

You can color any map with four colors.

(mathematics, graph theory) To assign colors to the vertices of a graph (or the regions of a map) so that no two vertices connected by an edge (regions sharing a border) have the same color.

en-verb

color (third-person singular simple present colors, present participle coloring, simple past and past participle colored)

colors (present singular third-person)
coloring (participle present)
colored (participle past)
colored (past)

färglägga

mathematics: assign distinct colors to the vertices or regions of