flesh color

noun

1. a color that falls within the spectrum of human skin colors.
2. (no longer in common use; now considered offensive) a yellowish pink or pinkish cream color (approximating the skin color of a white person).

Usage Alert

While flesh color originally meant the skin tone of white people, that meaning has been criticized as exclusionary and is now considered offensive. In fact, the term is no longer commonly used without qualifying it with a specific hue, such as peach flesh color or dark flesh color . The word nude in the past has been used to describe a similar hue approximating a white person's skin color and has been criticized for the same reason.

Other Words From

• flesh-colored adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of flesh color¹

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

The gene beta-carotene oxygenase 1 is responsible for carotenoid metabolism and most likely explains flesh color variation in salmon.

From Salon

While the flesh color is a direct result of carotenoids in their diet, there is also a unique genetic component.

From Salon

She widely encounters forms of design that suggest “I don’t belong,” she writes, such as eyeglasses unfitted to the bridge of her nose and “medical adhesives not in my flesh color.”

From New York Times

Benjamin Rush, one of the physicians who signed the Declaration of Independence, once described Blackness as a form of leprosy that could be cured to restore the “natural white flesh color.”

From Science Magazine

It is the flesh color, as the bald spot grows.

From New York Times