coloured

See also: colored, Colored, and Coloured

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌl.əd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

coloured (comparative more coloured, superlative most coloured)

1. British standard spelling of colored.
   • 1832 December 14, “Delicate Distresses”, in James K. Cook, editor, Mississippi Journal and Natchez Advertiser, volume I, number 8, Natchez, Miss.: N. Wooster, →OCLC, page [4], column 4:

     The last quarrel arose from Mr[.] Pompeau’s being more sweet upon Miss Feliciana Woodland, a coloured spinster, than suited Mrs. Pompeau’s ideas of decorum.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.

Usage notes

See colored.

Derived terms

• bicoloured
• coloured gold
• cream-coloured
• decoloured
• discoloured
• gold-coloured
• monocoloured
• nun-coloured
• off-coloured
• party-coloured
• plum-coloured starling
• quadricoloured
• rainbow-coloured
• self-coloured
• toffee-coloured
• twi-coloured
• unicoloured

Noun

coloured (plural coloureds)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of colored.
   • 2018 Ticket taker, "Struggling Against the Perception of Facts", Anne with an E, season 2, episode 8, 13 minutes

     On this train we put the coloureds to work.

Verb

coloured

1. simple past and past participle of colour

Anagrams

• decolour