secondary color

American  

noun

Art.

1. a color, as orange, green, or violet, produced by mixing two primary colors.

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secondary color Scientific  

1. A color produced by mixing two additive primary colors in equal proportions. The secondary colors are cyan (a mixture of blue and green), magenta (a mixture of blue and red), and yellow (a mixture of green and red). Each secondary color is also the complementary color (or complement) of the primary color whose wavelength it does not contain. Thus cyan is the complement of red, magenta is the complement of green, and yellow is the complement of blue.

2. See Note at color

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Etymology

Origin of secondary color

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

To be fair, the Mariners would point out that their secondary color to navy blue has always been Northwest green, not teal, but the point, or in this case the punchline, still stands.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 6, 2023

Navy blue will now be the dominant color, light blue will be the secondary color, and orange will be minimized.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 20, 2012

The secondary color is the complement of the remaining third color; thus yellow and blue form green, and green is the complement or contrasting harmony of red.

From Color Value by Clifford, C. R. (Chandler Robbins)

Most of the dye materials explained in the preceding pages do not produce standard colors and so, when combined, do not result in the expected secondary color.

From Philippine Mats Philippine Craftsman Reprint Series No. 1 by Miller, Hugo H.

If we would have the purest and richest secondary color, we must take two primaries, each of which partakes of the quality of the other.

From The Painter in Oil A complete treatise on the principles and technique necessary to the painting of pictures in oil colors by Parkhurst, Daniel Burleigh