Colored

How to spell colored

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce colored

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does colored mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a particular colour or colours rather than being plain, black, or white.
2. verbApplied colour to something, or influenced how something was perceived.

Colored in a sentence

• adjective

  The brightly colored packaging caught every shopper's eye on the shelf.

• verb

  The children colored the entire poster in under an hour.

• adjective

  The colored tiles formed a bright pattern along the kitchen wall.

• verb

  His early experience clearly colored the way he judged the new manager.

Where does colored come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the American spelling of a word that travelled into English through Old French from the Latin noun color, which meant a hue or tint and, more loosely, the outward appearance or complexion of something. The Latin form is thought to connect with an older root meaning 'to cover' or 'to conceal', the idea being that colour is the surface that covers a thing and meets the eye. English adopted the noun in the 1300s and quickly formed a verb from it, to which the ordinary past tense and adjective ending -ed was added. The single -l- and the -or- ending mark this as the American form; British and Canadian writers keep the older French-looking -our- and write 'coloured'. The same Latin color also gives us 'colourful', 'discolour' and the printing term 'colorant', so the family is easy to recognise once the root is fixed in mind.

How the word is built

• color (root, from Latin color: hue, tint)
• -ed (suffix forming an adjective or past tense)

British and American spelling

Colored is the American spelling. British English spells it coloured.