HomeServicesBlogDictionariesContactSpanish Course
← Back to search

Meaning of of color | Babel Free

Adjective CEFR B2

Definitions

  1. Nonwhite; of a race other than white, for example black.
    US, not-comparable
  2. Belonging to a category of people with mixed black and white ancestry in the Americas in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
    historical, not-comparable

Equivalents

Español de color
Suomi värillinen
Français de couleur racisé
Nederlands van kleur
Português de cor
Русский цветно́й
Tiếng Việt da màu

Examples

“It is to him that we owe the story that Talleyrand outraged the susceptibilities of the Philadelphians by his open admiration for a woman of colour with whom he frequently appeared in public.”
“But the vengeance I told myself I was getting for Wrex felt like a lie. I could win the game but he wasn't coming back. Being forced to lose my in-game comrade-who I thought of as a virtual person of color and as a brother-in-arms-affected me in a forceful way that I never expected. Mass Effect made me look at myself and think about the way races, classes and individuals bring their histories to bear.”
“She's also worked to help librarians forge connections through professional activities. Bell cochaired the first Joint Council of Librarians of Color (JCLC) in 2006, the first-ever shared conference among ALA's five ethnic affiliate associations: BCALA, the American Indian Library Association, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, the Chinese American Librarians Association, and Reforma.”
“...historians and Native Americans are also revisiting the legacy of Charles Curtis, whose Kaw Nation ancestry gives him a claim as the first "person of color" to serve as vice president, although the term's current usage emerged decades later.”
“[page 1:] Chap. 1. … The inhabitants of the French part of St. Domingo, as of all the West Indian Islands, were composed of three great classes: 1st, Pure whites. 2d, People of colour, and blacks of free condition. 3d, Negroes in a state of slavery. The reader is apprised that the class which, by a strange abuse of language, is called people of colour, originates from an intermixture of the whites and the blacks. The genuine offspring of a pure white with a negro is called a mulatto; but there are various casts, …. All these were known in St. Domingo by the term sang-melées, or gens de couleur … [page 67:] Chap. VI. Consequences in St. Domingo of the Decree of the 15th of May—Rebellion of the Negroes in the Northern Province, and Enormities committed by them—Revolt of the Mulattoes at Mirebalais—Concordat or Truce between the Inhabitants of Port au Prince and the Men of Colour of the 13th of September—Proclamation by the National Assembly of the 20th of September.”
“Those who owned the smaller plots were mainly poor whites, free people of color, and free blacks, none of whom had been affected by emancipation.”
“For quotations using this term, see Citations:of color.”

CEFR level

B2
Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.

See also

Learn this word in context

See of color used in real conversations inside our free language course.

Start Free Course