chromo
1 Americannoun
-
chromos
plural
combining form
-
indicating colour, coloured, or pigment
chromogen
-
indicating chromium
chromyl
noun
Usage
What does chromo- mean? Chromo- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “color.” It is used in many medical and scientific terms. Chromo- comes from the Greek chrôma, meaning “color” and is the source of the words chroma and chrome, among many others. The chemical element chromium is so named for the colorful compounds the metal can form. Chromo- is a variant of chrom-, as in chromesthesia, used when combined with words or word elements beginning with a consonant. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use chrom- article. A corresponding form of chromo- and chrom- combined to the end of words is -chrome, as in polychrome. Closely related to chromo- are the combining forms chromato- and chromat-.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of chromo
By shortening; cf. -o
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.
See Examples For:
On its face he found a gaudy chromo entitled "No. 528 Nature."
From Time Magazine Archive
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Nature intended every man and woman to have 46 chromo somes per cell: 22 pairs of autosomes, which determine countless characteristics other than sex, and two gonosomes or sex chromosomes.
From Time Magazine Archive
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As a child in Ireland he played with Fletcher Christian's sword, knew his 18th-Century cousin's renown from yellowed family documents and a curly-wigged chromo that hung over the mantel.
From Time Magazine Archive
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All schools are represented; paintings ranging through chromo, academic and modernist styles in all their manifestations hang in assorted order on the overcrowded walls.
From Time Magazine Archive
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He put the chain in his pocket, and laid the price of one round of drinks for last night’s company on the shelf below the chromo.
From Red Men and White by Frederic Remington
That isn't a real steamer," said Patty whimsically; "it's a chromo- lithograph.
From Patty in Paris by Carolyn Wells
Indeed, Vauquelin named this new metal after the Greek word for colour, chromos - because chromium is associated with an extraordinary array of colours.
From BBC ● May 22, 2015
The artists were bound to be influenced by the sugary religious chromos imported from Europe and tacked up in thousands of Haitian homes.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Eugene Field's Little Boy Blue and My Mother's Faith are next door to chromos, but they have an intact nostalgic tone with a true power to move.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Ever since 1851, when Benjamin Talbot Babbitt, the father of packaged soap, got the idea of offering sentimental chromos for 25 Babbitt's Best Soap wrappers, premiums have helped sell thousands of items.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The walls were decorated with brilliant chromos, calendars dating back into the 'seventies and on up to date.
From At Boarding School with the Tucker Twins by Nell Speed
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.