colored
colored Lexical Profile
colored Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
American Having a color or colors, especially as opposed to being transparent, white, or black and white.
"The artist used colored pencils to sketch the vibrant autumn landscape."
American Influenced, distorted, or biased by a particular emotion, personal viewpoint, or prejudice.
"His testimony was heavily colored by his longstanding resentment toward the company."
American Belonging or relating to a racial group not categorized as white, especially Black Americans (now dated and often considered offensive except in historical contexts or certain institutional names).
"The historian examined archival records from segregated schools designated for colored students in the nineteenth century."
• noun
American Colored clothing or fabrics washed together separately from white items (usually used in the plural).
"Please separate the whites from the coloreds before starting the washing machine."
South African A person of mixed ethnic ancestry in South Africa and neighboring countries, recognized as a distinct cultural and demographic group (usually spelled 'Coloured' locally).
"The census report analyzed demographic shifts among Black, White, Indian, and Colored populations in the Western Cape."
Word Nuance & Usage
While completely standard when describing physical objects with hue or pigment, using 'colored' to refer to non-white people is now considered dated and offensive in most English-speaking regions, having been replaced by 'person of color' or specific ethnic terms (though 'Coloured' remains an official, recognized multiracial ethnic designation in South Africa).