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
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
It informs many of her titles, together with Afrikaans, the Coloured lingua franca.
From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2022
The Coloured people rallied against the Separate Representation of Voters Act, organizing a tremendous demonstration in Cape Town in March of 1951 and a strike in April that kept shops closed and schoolchildren at home.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
As brightly coloured kites climb above Burin, a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, children race across a sun-baked hillside, watching their creations soar into the sky.
From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026
NBA star Kyrie Irving walked out onto a basketball court in southwest China to rapturous applause, his brightly coloured Chinese-made sneakers a vivid statement of domestic sportswear brands' increasing global reach.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
His daughter, Felicia Helen Parazaider, also posted on Facebook that “I love you poppy, my Pal...You coloured our world.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
After closer examination it was discovered one of the curlews had coloured rings on its legs meaning that it was a "headstarted bird from 2024".
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
They could hardly believe it was true, and yet here were green branches huskily rattling on their hats as they bent beneath them, and little coloured flowers curling round their shoes.
From "Mary Poppins" by P. L. Travers
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.
