watercolor

[waw-ter-kuhl-er, wot-er-]

noun

1. a pigment for which water and not oil is used as the vehicle.

2. the art or technique of painting with such pigments.

3. a painting or design executed in such pigments by this technique.

Other Word Forms

• water-color adjective
• watercolorist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of watercolor¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; water + color

Example Sentences

He visited every bookshop that carried melancholy German poetry in translation, and every art gallery that showed sentimental watercolors of mountain lakes and alpine meadows.

Read more on Literature

Alexander had drawn a map of the nursery, tinted with watercolors and oriented according to the compass, with all the furniture drawn to scale, down to the last footstool.

Read more on Literature

Instead, she brought a small kit of watercolors with her into the hay maze and painted arrows on the hay stalks at each right or left turn.

Read more on Literature

As the title promised, the volume was lavishly illustrated with thumbnail-sized watercolor paintings, most of which depicted wildflower meadows and snowcapped mountain peaks.

Read more on Literature

Funny how even in the dead of winter the West Virginia sun rises like a watercolor painting over the hills.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• art 
• canvas 
• composition 
• design 
• drawing 
• mural 
• picture 
• portrait