chromatic
Americanadjective
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pertaining to color or colors.
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Music.
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involving a modification of the normal scale by the use of accidentals.
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progressing by semitones, especially to a tone having the same letter name, as in C to C sharp.
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adjective
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of, relating to, or characterized by a colour or colours
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music
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involving the sharpening or flattening of notes or the use of such notes in chords and harmonic progressions
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of or relating to the chromatic scale or an instrument capable of producing it
a chromatic harmonica
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of or relating to chromaticism Compare diatonic
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of chromatic
1590–1600; < Greek chrōmatikós, equivalent to chrōmat- ( see chromato-) + -ikos -ic
Compare meaning
How does chromatic compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
The adjective chromatic is useful for describing things related to color, like the beautiful chromatic variation of the sky at sunset. You could describe the chromatic intensity of a fireworks display or the excellent chromatic perception of an artist, who is skilled at seeing nuances of color. In physics, the word chromatic has to do with the scientific aspects of color and light. The earliest uses of chromatic, in the 1590s, only referred to music, but by the 1800s it was used to mean "color," which is also the meaning of the Greek root, khroma.
Vocabulary lists containing chromatic
Music - Middle School
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Music - High School
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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.
The treed “Woodland Garden” to the west, with black tupelo and swamp white oaks, gives way to a “Perennial Meadow,” whose asters, purple beebalms and orange butterfly weed were chosen for their chromatic effect.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 24, 2025
Not so much by the delightfully odd “Space Babies” episode with its on-the-nose title and guest cast that’s still in diapers but the chromatic cheer of the whole thing.
From Salon • May 10, 2024
However, for OTN wavelengths, ordinary visible cameras lose sensitivity and only a few commercially available lenses exist that can correct chromatic aberration.
From Science Daily • Apr. 29, 2024
A Busoni aficionado, Levit brings tautness without rigidity to tame the sprawling, potentially meandering, Bach-loving “Fantasia Contrappuntistica,” before closing with Busoni’s “Nuit de Noël,” another chromatic fantasia, gently snowy.
From New York Times • Oct. 26, 2023
For major and minor scales, there are seven notes; for pentatonic, five; for a chromatic scale, twelve.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
