Coloured
noun
an individual who is not a White person, esp a Black person
Coloured
1 British
/ ˈkʌləd /
noun
-
old-fashioned an individual who is not a White person, esp a Black person
-
-
a person of mixed ethnic parentage or descent
-
a person of mixed ethnic descent speaking English or Afrikaans as their mother tongue
-
adjective
coloured
2
British
/ ˈkʌləd /
adjective
-
possessing colour
-
having a strong element of fiction or fantasy; distorted (esp in the phrase highly coloured )
Usage
The use of Coloured to refer to a person of mixed ethnic origin is likely to cause offence and should be avoided
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:
State legislatures literally criminalized the possession of things like David Walker's "Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World."
From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2025
In Cape Town, improvisers picked up on the carnival music of the townships’ Coloured population, a mix of Malaysian, Indian, Dutch, Khoisan and Black African heritages.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
The Melbourne study is recruiting through a nonprofit partner organization called Many Coloured Sky that supports LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 24, 2024
"Coloured stones performed extremely well, as did signed jewellery... There's a great market out there for rare things, and there are still collectors looking for the very best."
From Reuters ● Nov. 7, 2023
My inclination was to spend the night in the Cape Flats, the bustling black and Coloured townships of Cape Town, in order to show my solidarity with the people.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
For parents who have some but not total visual impairment, Kim says children can be dressed in brightly coloured clothing while out and about so they are easier to spot.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
From some angles the jets appeared very close to the roof of the DHL Stadium as they roared over amid coloured flare smoke.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
The photo shows a vacationing couple seated in striped deck chairs beneath a brightly coloured parasol on a beach.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
At the foot of the skyscraper, construction workers wearing brightly coloured vests and hard hats took their lunch breaks.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
He coloured the second line from the top red, in order to give each tune an absolute bearing in relation to all other times.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
