monochrome
Americannoun
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a painting or drawing in different shades of a single color.
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the art or technique of producing such a painting or drawing.
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the state or condition of being painted, decorated, etc., in shades of a single color.
adjective
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being or made in the shades of a single color.
a blue monochrome seascape.
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having the images reproduced in tones of gray.
monochrome television.
noun
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a black-and-white photograph or transparency
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photog black and white
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a painting, drawing, etc, done in a range of tones of a single colour
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the technique or art of this
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(modifier) executed in or resembling monochrome
a monochrome print
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of monochrome
From the Medieval Latin word monochrōma, dating back to 1655–65. See mono-, -chrome
Explanation
Things that are monochrome have different tones or shades of only one color. If you prefer to use monochrome film, it means that you love black and white photography. Use the adjective monochrome to describe something that's a single color. If you've ever watched an old black-and-white movie, you know what monochrome film looks like. You can also call a black-and-white photograph a monochrome. The Greek root, monochromos, means "of a single color," from monos, "single or one," and khroma, "color." Originally, it referred to art drawn or painted in tones of one color.
Vocabulary lists containing monochrome
myPerspectives 7.4
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All My Rage
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I Must Betray You
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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.
To demonstrate this precision, the researchers used a standard laser to create a microscopic monochrome portrait of Albert Einstein on a thin piece of the material, with points spaced just 700 nanometers apart.
From Science Daily • Apr. 21, 2026
Long Beach’s R&B savant Giveon kept his Coachella stage to a monochrome motif during his sundown set.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
Kyiv was in the depths of a frigid winter so monochrome that the scene on the platform could have been an old newsreel, but it was 2022 and happening in a technicolour, digital age.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
The enthusiasm also reflects a loss of interest in "workwear" or "quiet luxury", trends that have dominated menswear for years with their simple and often monochrome fabrics.
From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026
The picture looked like a miniature monochrome galaxy, teeming with stars and worlds and boundless potential.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
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.
