coloured
US spellingcolored
Pluralcoloureds
- 1Having a colour of some kind.
We used coloured paper to make the birthday cards.
The glass in the old church windows is coloured.
UsageColoured paper has a colour. A colourful thing is bright, with lots of colours.
Similartinted
Oppositecolourless, uncoloured
- 2Of a certain colour, often named just before the word, as in cream-coloured or dark-coloured.
The sky was coloured pink and orange as the sun went down.
The shop sells cream-coloured paint for kitchens.
UsageOften with a hyphen after a colour or a thing: cream-coloured, honey-coloured.
- 3Past tense and past participle of colour. Use it for colouring that has already happened.
The children coloured the pictures with crayons.
Her cheeks coloured when everyone looked at her.
UsageWithout an object it can mean went red in the face: she coloured when they laughed.
- 4Changed by someone's feelings or beliefs, so it is not fair or balanced.
His view of the new boss is coloured by jealousy.
Her memories of school are coloured by one unkind teacher.
UsageOften coloured by a feeling: his view is coloured by jealousy. It is a softer word than biased.
- 5In southern Africa, belonging to a community whose families come from more than one of the region's racial groups.
Many Coloured families in Cape Town speak Afrikaans at home.
The singer grew up in a Coloured family in Johannesburg.
UsageUse it about this southern African group. Elsewhere, say mixed-race: calling a person coloured is usually heard as rude.
Note
Less common meanings
- 6In washing clothes, a piece of clothing that is not white.
Put the coloureds in the machine and leave the whites in the basket.
Wash your coloureds on a cool setting so they do not fade.
UsageUsually plural: wash the coloureds separately from the whites.
Oppositewhite
- 7In southern Africa, a person whose family comes from more than one of the region's racial groups.
Under apartheid, a Coloured could not live in a part of the city kept for white people.
The census counts Coloureds as a separate group from black and white South Africans.
UsageUsually written with a big C. Outside southern Africa, calling someone a coloured is heard as offensive.
- 8An old word used to describe people whose skin is not white, especially Black people. It is now usually offensive.
To find a job is like a haystack needle / Because where he lives they don't use colored people
1973, Stevie Wonder, “Living for the City”UsageSay Black, or use the name of the group the person belongs to.
Note
- 9In the past, kept for people who were not white, when places were split by race.
Her grandfather remembered having to drink from the coloured fountain at the bus station.
New Orleans is a very dull town. It’s against the law to go to the colored section. The bars are insufferably dreary.
1957, Jack Kerouac, On the RoadNote
- 10An old and offensive word for a person whose skin is not white.
Showing meanings only.
coloured is a form of colour
colour, verb: To make something red, blue or another colour, for example with paint or dye. Full entry
- Spelling
- colour → coloured: add -ed
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /d/.
Practice
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Origin
Made from colour and the ending -ed.
Checked 4 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Coloured is formed from colour and the suffix -ed. en.wiktionary.org