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.
Next, they painted the walls — no beige here.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026
It was a regular and beige life, and it worked.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026
The Federal Reserve releases the beige book for the third of eight times this year.
From Barron's • Apr. 11, 2026
Much like the rest of the dwelling, the space has a very muted aesthetic, with textured beige walls and a gray marble fireplace, above which a TV is mounted on the wall.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 24, 2026
It was a tailored tie-silk dressing gown, beige, with a pretty pattern of minute pink tea roses.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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.
