What does recoloured mean?
Recoloured means that something has been given a new colour. The word is used for deliberately changing the appearance of an object through painting, dyeing, printing, or some other process: a designer might recolour a wall, a stylist might recolour a piece of furniture, or an image editor might recolour part of a photograph. It can also describe the result of accidental fading, staining, or wear, as in “the once-vivid curtains had been recoloured by sunlight.” In American English, the usual spelling is recolored. The related verb is recolour, with recolouring as its present participle and recolours as its third-person singular form. The word is especially useful when the change of colour itself is significant rather than when colour is merely being mentioned.
verbTo change the colour of something, especially by painting, dyeing, or applying a new finish. It is also the past tense and past participle of recolour.
- Changed or having been changed from one colour to another.
"We recoloured the old furniture a deep blue."
"The designer recoloured the façade in soft shades of grey."
"After the photograph was restored, the conservators recoloured the faded areas."
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does recoloured come from?
Recolour comes from the prefix re-, meaning “again,” and the noun colour, with the sense of colouring again or changing the colour. Colour ultimately comes through Old French from Latin color, a term associated with appearance or surface quality. Related English words include colourful, colourless, and coloration, while the North American spelling uses color in place of colour.
Related word forms
How recoloured is actually used
Recoloured is especially common in British and Commonwealth English. The spelling recolored is standard in American English. As the past participle, it follows the verb have: The room has been recoloured.
Easily confused with recoloured
Coloured means simply having a particular colour, whereas recoloured means that the colour of something has been changed.