pigment

American  

[pig-muhnt] / ˈpɪg mənt /

noun

pigments plural

1. a dry insoluble substance, usually pulverized, which when suspended in a liquid vehicle becomes a paint, ink, etc.

2. a coloring matter or substance.

3. Biology. any substance whose presence in the tissues or cells of animals or plants colors them.

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verb (used with object)

1. to color; add pigment to.

verb (used without object)

1. to become pigmented; acquire color; develop pigmentation.

   a poor quality of paper that doesn't pigment well.

pigment British  

/ ˈpɪɡmənt /

noun

1. a substance occurring in plant or animal tissue and producing a characteristic colour, such as chlorophyll in green plants and haemoglobin in red blood

2. any substance used to impart colour

3. a powder that is mixed with a liquid to give a paint, ink, etc

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pigment Scientific  

/ pĭg′mənt /

1. An organic compound that gives a characteristic color to plant or animal tissues and is involved in vital processes. Chlorophyll, which gives a green color to plants, and hemoglobin, which gives blood its red color, are examples of pigments.

2. A substance or material used as coloring.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hyperpigmented
  adjective
• nonpigmented
  adjective
• pigmentary
  adjective
• unpigmented
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pigments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pigment

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin pigmentum paint, equivalent to pig- (stem of pingere to paint ) + -mentum -ment

Explanation

Something's color is its pigment. Technically, all living things have a natural pigment — leaves have a green pigment for example — but the word is more generally applied to human skin color. The other, more technical, use of pigment refers to the substance, usually a powder, that is added to a liquid to give it its color. For example, ultramarine paint is made from a crushed blue silicate that mixed with oil produces a brilliant blue tone. Other pigments were achieved in less pleasant ways. The bright yellow of many Indian paintings? Cow's urine. The red of medieval ox-blood walls? You guessed it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pigment pigments

They include companies like Chemours and Tronox, which make titanium dioxide, a pigment used in paint and wallpaper, and Celanese, which produces acetic acid, a key ingredient in many industrial products.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026

Crucially, the artist did more than simply spray pigment around a hand pressed to the wall, the researchers say.

From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026

After applying a variety of advanced scientific techniques, the team determined that the residue came from azurite, a bright blue mineral pigment that has not previously been documented in Paleolithic art in Europe.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 9, 2025

Its provenance was certified through methods including X-ray imaging and pigment analysis, he added.

From Barron's ● Nov. 30, 2025

In the late 1930s, Beadle and Tatum reasoned that isolating the actual eye pigment of a fruit fly might solve the riddle of gene action.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

However, scientists had never conclusively demonstrated that the pigments contained no carbon at all.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

Mineral pigments, however, usually contain no carbon and therefore cannot be analyzed in the same way.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

Respectively done on English paper and Indian cotton, each combines techniques from Qing dynasty bird-and-flower painting, Mughal court art and European natural-history studies, not to mention pigments from England, China and India.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026

The lift was led by plastic resins, as well as by dyes and pigments, and petrochemicals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

They both have light brown skin and dark hair with pigments of brown and black.

From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga

Related Words

• coloring
• dye
• stain
• tint