colored

[ kuhl-erd ]

adjective

1. having color.
2. Older Use: Offensive. belonging wholly or in part to any group of nonwhite people, especially to Black people.
3. Older Use: Offensive. pertaining to Black people.
4. influenced or biased:

   colored opinions.

5. specious; deceptive:

   The authorities detected a colored quality in her statement.

6. Botany. of some hue other than green.

noun

1. Older Use: Offensive.
   1. a Black person.
   2. the colored, Black people as a group.
2. Cape Colored.

Sensitive Note

See Black ¹.

Other Words From

• half-colored adjective
• un·colored adjective
• un·colored·ly adverb
• un·colored·ness noun
• under·colored adjective
• well-colored adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of colored¹

A Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; color, -ed ³

Example Sentences

Six hovering angels shade their eyes with their hands, or else they shield their eyes behind transparent colored disks — think 14th century sunglasses.

From Los Angeles Times

Stories of women who received life-saving abortion care colored politicians' appeals to Americans as the number of reports of women whose preventable deaths from pregnancy and miscarriage complications in states with abortion bans grew.

From Salon

Research into recall bias suggests surveys and eyewitness accounts may suffer from gaps in people’s memories, and Flaxman explained that news coverage and social media reports can be colored by bias.

From Salon

Initial sessions tend to be colored by weeping, hesitancy and half-truths as the clinician and client get a feel for each other.

From Salon

Despite a recent health scare and an order from her doctor to stop vaping, everytime the camera was down, the candy colored device was back in her mouth.

From Los Angeles Times

How Do You Spell Colored?

Spelling tips for colored

The word colored is hard to spell for three reasons. First, it can be tempting to use a double l or double r. Second, in British English, the word is spelled with a u (colored), unlike in American English. Finally, the ending -ed is pronounced simply [ d ], so one may forget the e. 

How to spell colored: When it comes to color, keep it simple. You don’t need any extra letters, like a double l, double r, or u. For adjectives like colored that end with the sound [ d ], remember that you will always need a little Extra (e) to get it Done, -ed.