color

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The quality of an object, such as red, blue, or green, that comes from the light it reflects.

   What is your favourite color?

2. 2
   verb

   To add colour to something, for example with pens or paint.

   The child colored the drawings.

3. 3
   noun

   A material such as paint or dye used to give something colour.

   I used a different color for the trim.

4. 4
   noun

   Interest, variety, and liveliness.

   Her funny stories added color to the report.

From Middle English colour, color, borrowed from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, color, from Latin color. Doublet of couleur. 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. 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).

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