colour

pronunciation

How to pronounce colour in British English: UK [ˈkʌlə(r)] word uk audio image

How to pronounce colour in American English: US [ˈkʌlər] word us audio image

Noun:

any material used for its color
a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks)
(physics) the characteristic of quarks that determines their role in the strong interaction; each flavor of quarks comes in three colors
interest and variety and intensity
the timbre of a musical sound
a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect
an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading
the appearance of objects (or light sources) described in terms of a person's perception of their hue and lightness (or brightness) and saturation
Verb:

modify or bias
decorate with colors
gloss or excuse
affect as in thought or feeling
add color to
change color, often in an undesired manner
Adjective:

having or capable of producing colors

Word Origin

colour: colour: [13] The Old English words for ‘colour’ were hīw ‘hue’ and blēo, but from the 13th century onwards they were gradually replaced by Old French colour. This came from Latin color, which appears to have come ultimately from an Indo-European base *kel- ‘hide’ (source also of apocalypse, cell, clandestine, conceal, and occult).This suggests that its original underlying meaning was ‘outward appearance, hiding what is inside’, a supposition supported by the long history of such senses of English colour as ‘outward (deceptive) appearance’ and ‘(specious) plausibility’ (as in ‘lend colour to a notion’).=> apocalypse, cell, conceal, hell, occult

colour: chiefly British English spelling of color (q.v.); for ending see -or. Related: Coloured; colouring; colourful; colours.

vt.