"colorism" meaning in English

See colorism in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: colorisms [plural]
Etymology: color + -ism Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|color|ism}} color + -ism Head templates: {{en-noun|-|s}} colorism (usually uncountable, plural colorisms)
  1. (American spelling) Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification. Tags: US, uncountable, usually Categories (topical): Forms of discrimination, Racism Translations (prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification): colorisme [masculine] (French), Kolorismus [masculine] (German), колори́зм (kolorízm) [masculine] (Russian), pigmentocracia [feminine] (Spanish), colorismo [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-colorism-en-noun-z8LvgWqu Disambiguation of Forms of discrimination: 78 22 Disambiguation of Racism: 78 22 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms suffixed with -ism Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 68 32 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 66 34 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ism: 62 38 Disambiguation of 'prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification': 98 2
  2. (painting) A style of painting characterised by the use of intense color. Tags: uncountable, usually Categories (topical): Painting, Painting Translations (a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.): colorisme [masculine] (French), Kolorismus [masculine] (German), colorismo [masculine] (Spanish), kolorism [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-colorism-en-noun-eMvoA2z5 Disambiguation of Painting: 7 93 Disambiguation of 'a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.': 3 97
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: colourism [UK]

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for colorism meaning in English (6.7kB)

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        "2": "color",
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      "expansion": "color + -ism",
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        {
          "_dis": "78 22",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Don Lemon, Transparent, Las Vegas: Farrah Gray",
          "text": "Black America used to be, and perhaps still is, a pigmentocracy, which means that the social hierarchy is based largely on colorism.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Alicia Williams, “2019 Kirkus Prize Finalists: Alicia D. Williams on Writing Genesis Begins Again”, in Kirkus Reviews, retrieved 2021-04-15",
          "text": "This type of preferential colorism isn’t only found in the church aisles, it’s at family gatherings, on the dating scene, in the classroom, on the playground—it’s everywhere.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 April 18, Pariha Laila Begum, quotee, “Shades of Black: how readers responded to our series on the colorism taboo”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "Colorism from your own people feels worse than racism – at the very least your own family and people should welcome you, no?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 July 29, E. Tammy Kim, “The Perils of “People of Color””, in The New Yorker",
          "text": "Eliminating racism and colorism is, of course, a worthy pursuit, but it’s also impossible to do in the abstract.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 15, Kovie Biakolo, “The Bachelor’s “Groundbreaking” Season Was a Representation Nightmare”, in Vanity Fair",
          "text": "Like those, James’s season still gave noticeably less screen time to its Black contestants—and because of James’s Blackness, the colorism that has always plagued The Bachelor became more visible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 166",
          "text": "Like many other parts of the world, colourism is rampant in India.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification."
      ],
      "id": "en-colorism-en-noun-z8LvgWqu",
      "links": [
        [
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(American spelling) Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "colorisme"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Kolorismus"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "kolorízm",
          "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "колори́зм"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "pigmentocracia"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
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        }
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          "text": "Turner's colorism with its cosmic world view had nothing to do with realism, in spite of its impasto handling of colour. […] Turner's images are based on the far-sighted and purely objective views of the 18th century which he imbued with new meaning through his colorism based on colour theory and plein-air painting.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "A style of painting characterised by the use of intense color."
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(painting) A style of painting characterised by the use of intense color."
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "3 97",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "colorisme"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 97",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Kolorismus"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 97",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "colorismo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 97",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "kolorism"
        }
      ]
    }
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      "_dis1": "0 0",
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      "word": "colourism"
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        {
          "ref": "2011, Don Lemon, Transparent, Las Vegas: Farrah Gray",
          "text": "Black America used to be, and perhaps still is, a pigmentocracy, which means that the social hierarchy is based largely on colorism.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Alicia Williams, “2019 Kirkus Prize Finalists: Alicia D. Williams on Writing Genesis Begins Again”, in Kirkus Reviews, retrieved 2021-04-15",
          "text": "This type of preferential colorism isn’t only found in the church aisles, it’s at family gatherings, on the dating scene, in the classroom, on the playground—it’s everywhere.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 April 18, Pariha Laila Begum, quotee, “Shades of Black: how readers responded to our series on the colorism taboo”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "Colorism from your own people feels worse than racism – at the very least your own family and people should welcome you, no?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 July 29, E. Tammy Kim, “The Perils of “People of Color””, in The New Yorker",
          "text": "Eliminating racism and colorism is, of course, a worthy pursuit, but it’s also impossible to do in the abstract.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 15, Kovie Biakolo, “The Bachelor’s “Groundbreaking” Season Was a Representation Nightmare”, in Vanity Fair",
          "text": "Like those, James’s season still gave noticeably less screen time to its Black contestants—and because of James’s Blackness, the colorism that has always plagued The Bachelor became more visible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 166",
          "text": "Like many other parts of the world, colourism is rampant in India.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification."
      ],
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        "(American spelling) Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification."
      ],
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          "text": "Turner's colorism with its cosmic world view had nothing to do with realism, in spite of its impasto handling of colour. […] Turner's images are based on the far-sighted and purely objective views of the 18th century which he imbued with new meaning through his colorism based on colour theory and plein-air painting.",
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        "(painting) A style of painting characterised by the use of intense color."
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  "synonyms": [
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      "word": "colourism"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "colorisme"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Kolorismus"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "kolorízm",
      "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "колори́зм"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "pigmentocracia"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "colorismo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "colorisme"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Kolorismus"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "colorismo"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "a style of painting characterised by the use of intense color.",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "kolorism"
    }
  ],
  "word": "colorism"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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