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Showing results for polychrome. Search instead for polychord.
Synonyms

polychrome

American  
[pol-ee-krohm] / ˈpɒl iˌkroʊm /

adjective

  1. being of many or various colors.

  2. decorated or executed in many colors, as a statue, vase, or mural.


verb (used with object)

polychromed, polychroming
  1. to paint in many or various colors.

noun

  1. a polychrome object or work.

polychrome British  
/ ˈpɒlɪˌkrəʊm /

adjective

  1. having various or changing colours; polychromatic

  2. made with or decorated in various colours

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a work of art or artefact in many colours

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of polychrome

1795–1805; earlier polychrom < German < Greek polýchrōmos many-colored. See poly-, -chrome

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 the kitchen walls, the “Lauenstein Yellow” tile cascades down into polychrome patterns.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 21, 2026

Baghramian, who was born in Iran, will present abstract, polychrome sculptures, in the niches, that “seem to have washed up like flotsam and jetsam,” the museum said.

From New York Times Apr. 10, 2023

The mug was described in the auction catalogue as "a tin glazed commemorative mug with polychrome decoration depicting a bust length portrait of King Charles II, crowned and wearing armour and titled 'CD2 and 1660'".

From BBC Jan. 13, 2023

All the colorized statues are interpretations of what the polychrome scholars believe they may have looked like.

From Washington Post Aug. 11, 2022

The debris, rolling and flowing down the sides of the volcanic mountains, arching in great jets over the polychrome landscape, is more than enough to cover the impact craters.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

The Y, from 1930, by Dwight James Baum, who designed the building to look like an Italian hill town, with battlements and balconies and polychromed sculptures of evangelists.

From New York Times Sep. 16, 2020

“I consider his polychromed Popeye a current masterpiece,” Taschen said, “and could imagine sharing a room with it.”

From New York Times Apr. 21, 2015

A rich and vibrant collection of some 250 Western and Plains Indian objects, including polychromed ceramics, kachina dolls, God-impersonator masks and fetishes that were acquired by the museum's insightful turn-of-the-century curator.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Basilica of Glory," austere on the outside but stuffed with plaster piety inside: battalions of pink and blue angels, scores of polychromed saints, gauze curtains and blue and beige carpets.

From Time Magazine Archive

We are all dwellers in a vast picture-gallery, with frescoed dome above and polychromed sculpture and mosaic pavement on the floor below.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 099, March, 1876 by Various

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