# coloured

Pronunciation: UK say "KUL-uhd" /ˈkʌl.əd/; US say "KUL-erd" /ˈkʌl.ɚd/

## Adjective

1. Having a colour of some kind, rather than being colourless.
   - Simple: Having a colour of some kind.
   - _Coloured glass in the chapel windows throws patches of red and blue across the floor._
   - _Highlighting the key dates in coloured ink made the revision timetable much easier to read._
2. Of a particular colour or shade, often named just before the word, as in cream-coloured or rust-coloured.
   - Simple: Of a certain colour, often named just before the word, as in cream-coloured or dark-coloured.
   - _The dress was coloured like the evening sky, deep blue fading into pink._
   - _The village is built almost entirely of honey-coloured stone._
4. Influenced throughout in a particular direction, often in ways that are hard to notice, and so not impartial.
   - Simple: Changed by someone's feelings or beliefs, so it is not fair or balanced.
   - _Her account of the divorce was a rather coloured version of events._
   - _Much of what we think we know about medieval kings is coloured by chroniclers who served their rivals._
5. In Southern Africa, belonging to a community whose ancestry combines more than one of the region's racial groups (black, white and Asian); under apartheid, an official category. *(Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe)*
   - Simple: In southern Africa, belonging to a community whose families come from more than one of the region's racial groups.
   - _The Coloured community of the Western Cape has its own long tradition of music and carnival._
   - _In 1956 coloured voters in the Cape were removed from the common voters' roll._
9. Historically, set aside under segregation for people who were not white in the United States, or for people of mixed race in South Africa.
   - Simple: In the past, kept for people who were not white, when places were split by race.
   - _In the segregated South, Black travellers were sent to the coloured waiting room at the back of the station._
   - _Her mother was born in the coloured wing of the county hospital because the main wards were for whites only._

## Verb

3. Past tense and past participle of colour. — simple past and past participle of colour
   - Simple: Past tense and past participle of colour. Use it for colouring that has already happened.
   - _His years in the army have coloured his views on discipline._
   - _The onions had coloured nicely after ten minutes in the pan._

## Noun

6. In laundry, an item of clothing that has colour, rather than a white one.
   - Simple: In washing clothes, a piece of clothing that is not white.
   - _Sort the coloureds from the whites before you load the machine._
   - _I do the darks first and then put the coloureds on at forty degrees._
7. In Southern Africa, a person whose ancestry combines more than one of the region's racial groups: black, white and Asian. *(South Africa)*
   - Simple: In southern Africa, a person whose family comes from more than one of the region's racial groups.
   - _Under the Group Areas Act, a Coloured could not legally buy a house in a suburb reserved for whites._
   - _A community of Coloureds has lived in this Cape Town suburb for generations._

## Adjective

8. A dated and usually offensive word used to describe people whose skin is not white, especially Black people. *(dated)*
   - Simple: An old word used to describe people whose skin is not white, especially Black people. It is now usually offensive.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A dated and offensive term for a person who is not white.

## Origin

Formed from colour + -ed.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/coloured (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).