watercolor
Americannoun
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a pigment for which water and not oil is used as the vehicle.
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the art or technique of painting with such pigments.
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a painting or design executed in such pigments by this technique.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of watercolor
Explanation
Watercolors are a type of paint that can be mixed with water to create translucent layers of color on paper. You can also call a painting made this way a watercolor. Anyone can paint with watercolors, from toddlers to professional artists. Historians believe that watercolor painting has been around since Paleolithic cave paintings, but it was during the Renaissance that watercolors gained popularity as an artistic medium. It was particularly common for illustrations in books and botanical guides to be made using watercolors into the 19th century, when John James Audubon began his well-known watercolor bird illustrations and field guides.
Vocabulary lists containing watercolor
Visual Arts - Introductory
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Visual Arts - High School
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Art History
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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.
See Examples For:
Smitten by Monson de Kansky’s performance, he presented the dancer with a watercolor painting of their characters in the ballet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Inspired by the 1771 watercolor 'Night view of a current of lava' by British-Italian artist Pietro Fabris, the device was designed to use light and movement to mimic flowing lava and explosive bursts from Vesuvius.
From Science Daily ● May 2, 2026
On the line of limited-edition T-shirts Palantir launched last year, CEO Karp appears in watercolor, neck muscles taut and eyes hidden by dark sunglasses, above his favorite motto, “Dominate.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
On one wall, a small black-and-white watercolor of Chalino Sánchez he painted himself hangs beside a framed Mexico 1998 World Cup jersey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
The cover was a beautiful watercolor of a dripping green heart, with one symbolic drop of red paint.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
With so many eye-catching objects to behold, the watercolors and manuscripts, as refined as they are, can seem overshadowed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
I was drawn to some watercolors there, bought a few cards and spoke with one of the artists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
He returned in 2004, devoting a summer to making watercolors of the landscape.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Whether or not she’s the second coming of him as an artist, she’s more insightful than he ever was insulting watercolors of kittens on TV.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
Since Anna was an excellent artist, and specialized, like a lot of women of the time, in painting flowers and plants, she hung her own beautiful botanical watercolors on the walls.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
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.
