beige
Americannoun
adjective
noun
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a very light brown, sometimes with a yellowish tinge, similar to the colour of undyed wool
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( as adjective )
beige gloves
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a fabric made of undyed or unbleached wool
Etymology
Origin of beige
1855–60; < French; Old French bege, of uncertain origin
Explanation
Beige is a tan color with a reputation for being neutral, if not boring. Khaki pants and coffee with lots of cream might be beige. Beige does not sound the way it looks. The "ei" is pronounced like a long "a" (as in "cake") and the "g" is a soft "zh" sound. This is because beige comes straight out of French, where it originally meant a fabric of the color we now know as beige. See? Beige has some interesting qualities for such a boring color.
Vocabulary lists containing beige
Brown
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Lucky Broken Girl
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American Street
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Still, I appreciated how cinematographer Kevin Atkinson alludes to the dusty Kansas prairie with a shot of a beige strip mall.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 8, 2026
Creamy is the point, of course, but after a few bites, everything can start tasting a little… beige.
From Salon • Jul. 7, 2026
Meloni got alone time with Trump, engaging in what appeared to be a friendly conversation on a beige sofa.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 27, 2026
The beige book is “the latest warning sign that inflation is quickly turning into a sticky problem,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 3, 2026
The floor is linoleum, shiny clean, patterned in squares of tan, yellow, and beige.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
