What does colouring mean?
Colouring denotes the overall pattern or combination of colours that characterises a person, animal, plant, or object — for instance, the fair colouring typical of someone with blond hair and light skin. The word also names substances added to materials to alter their appearance, most familiarly food colouring stirred into icing or drinks, and it describes the popular pastime of filling in outline drawings with colour. Used figuratively, colouring can indicate a subtle bias or tone imparted to a narrative or opinion, as when a report takes on a political colouring. The term is neutral in register and widely understood across British and American English, though it is spelled colouring in Britain and coloring in the United States. Derived ultimately from Latin 'color' through Old French, it belongs to a large family of colour-related vocabulary and remains one of the most versatile everyday words for discussing how things look.
The characteristic combination or pattern of colours of a person's skin, hair, and eyes, or of an animal, plant, or object.
"The bird's brilliant colouring helps it blend into the forest canopy."
A dye or pigment added to food or another material to give or change its colour.
"Add a few drops of red food colouring to the batter."
The activity of decorating line drawings with colour, especially as a children's pastime.
"The twins spent the rainy afternoon doing colouring at the kitchen table."
A tone, influence, or bias imparted to an account, statement, or opinion.
"The memoir's account carries a nostalgic colouring."
The plural is uncommon and usually refers to multiple instances or types of added colourants, especially in food-labelling contexts listing several 'colourings'.
"The label lists several artificial colourings among the ingredients."
Before synthetic dyes arrived in the 19th century, much of humanity's 'food colouring' came from surprising sources — including crushed insects that still lend red sweets their vivid hue today.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of colouring
Colouring derives from the noun 'colour', which entered Middle English from Old French 'colour' (modern French 'couleur'), itself from Latin 'color', meaning hue or complexion. The suffix '-ing' formed an action or result noun, so the word originally denoted the act of giving colour before extending to its modern senses of appearance, pigment, and pastime. Its cognates include 'colorful', 'colorant', and 'discolor', all tracing back to the same Latin root.
How colouring is actually used
'Colouring' is the standard British spelling; American English uses 'coloring'. The word is neutral in register and appears freely in both everyday and formal contexts. When describing people, it typically refers to the combined effect of complexion and hair colour rather than any single hue.
Easily confused with colouring
'Coloring' is simply the standard American spelling of the same word, which is spelled 'colouring' in British English.
'Colour' refers to a specific hue or shade itself, whereas 'colouring' refers to the overall pattern of colouring across a surface, body, or object.