watercolor

American  

[waw-ter-kuhl-er, wot-er-] / ˈwɔ tərˌkʌl ər, ˈwɒt ər- /

noun

• watercolors
  plural

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.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• watercolorist
  noun
• water-color
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• watercolors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of watercolor

First recorded in 1590–1600; water + color

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

watercolor watercolors

In Sabina Hahn’s spare, watercolor illustrations, the pickle is a burnished emerald green with round eyes and no mouth—which makes it all the more remarkable when it begins to speak.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

In an 1803 etching and aquatint with watercolor by Thomas Daniell, we see Gangaram absorbed in sketching wall reliefs of Shiva and Parvati from a rock-cut cave at Ellora.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026

“Christ Is Risen” reads the headline on one email included in the lawsuit, which was decorated with a watercolor illustration of an open cave decorated with flowers.

From Salon ● May 25, 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

The world around her had lost its color; everything looked gray and cloudy like a smudged watercolor painting.

From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega

She described the large seascape in its unforgettable blues, the watercolors of trees, the misty quality of the skies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

In a small, light-filled room near the top of the Laurel Canyon home where she’s lived since 1962, Saar spends the morning filling sketchbooks with watercolors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026

Kristen Adam’s softly textured watercolors convey the dreamy quality of days spent on a beach, fine-grained sand underfoot and crisp blue waves hissing against the shore.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 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

At a much larger scale, Alexander had sketched his own childlike version of the type of alpine scenery depicted in the tiny watercolors of the Hixby’s Guide.

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

Related Words

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