colorful

English

Alternative forms

• colourful (Commonwealth)

Etymology

From color +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌl.ə.fl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌl.əɹ.fl̩/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (South Asia) IPA^(key): /ˈkə.lə.fʊl/, /kəˈlɜʳ.fʊl/, [kɐ.lɜ(ː)(ɾ).fʊl]

Adjective

colorful (comparative more colorful, superlative most colorful) (American spelling)

1. Possessing prominent and varied colors.

   a colourful display of flowers

   • 1895, The Annual of the British School at Athens:

     It was a colourful vase with red and white hoops on the lid, and red bands above and below the main frieze. These bands also carry a metope pattern in white of triple lines and blobs, which can just be distinguished on the photographs.

   • 2025 January 28, Cameron Joseph, “Meet Mitt Romney’s replacement – who could make or break the Trump agenda”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎^[1], Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 March 2025:

     [Sen. John Curtis] gives colorful socks to other lawmakers on their birthdays.

   • 2026 April 18, Manuel Rueda, “Caracas' iconic macaws threatened by vanishing palm trees”, in National Public Radio, Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio:

     Blue and gold macaws are not native to Caracas. But over the past two decades their numbers in Venezuela's capital have skyrocketed, with hundreds of these birds now flying freely across the city, and dazzling locals with their colorful feathers and peculiar calls.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

2. Interesting, multifaceted, energetic, distinctive.

   He had a colourful career in the music industry.

   • 1895, H. Walter Staner, Henry Sturmey, The Autocar:

     One of the most colourful people in motor racing, he writes in a colourful manner.

3. (euphemistic) Profane, obscene, offensive (usually in the phrase colourful language).
   • 2002 July 14, “Did Hussain go too far?”, in BBC Sport‎^[2], archived from the original on 28 February 2019:

     Hussain celebrated reaching his ton with a gesture towards the media centre, pointing to the number three on the back of his shirt and offering some colourful language.

Synonyms

• (possessing prominent and varied colors): motley, multicolored, polychromatic; see also Thesaurus:multicolored

Derived terms

• colorfully
• colorfulness
• colourful bluetail
• noncolorful
• uncolorful

Translations

possessing prominent and varied colors

• Afrikaans: kleurvol
• Albanian: shumëngjyrësh (sq)
• Armenian: գունագեղ (hy) (gunageġ)
• Breton: livek (br)
• Bulgarian: цветист (bg) (cvetist), колоритен (bg) (koloriten), пъ́стър (bg) (pắstăr)
• Catalan: colorit m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 五顏六色 / 五颜六色 (ng⁵ ngaan⁴ luk⁶ sik¹), 花哩碌 (faa¹ li¹ luk¹)

  Mandarin: 豔 / 艳 (zh) (yàn)

• Cornish: liwus
• Czech: barevný (cs), pestrý (cs), pestrobarevný
• Danish: farverig
• Dutch: kleurrijk (nl)
• Esperanto: bunta (eo)
• Finnish: värikäs (fi)
• French: coloré (fr)
• Galician: colorido
• Georgian: ჭრელი (ka) (č̣reli)
• German: bunt (de), kunterbunt (de), farbig (de), farbenprächtig, farbenfroh (de), farbenreich
• Greek: πολύχρωμος (el) (polýchromos)
• Hawaiian: nui nā waihoʻoluʻu
• Hebrew: צִבְעוֹנִי (he) (tsiv'oni)
• Hindi: रंगीला (raṅgīlā), रंगीन (hi) (raṅgīn)
• Hungarian: színes (hu)
• Icelandic: litríkur (is)
• Ido: koloroza (io)
• Irish: dathannach, ildaite
• Italian: colorato (it), variopinto (it), vivace (it)
• Japanese: カラフル (ja)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ئاڵوواڵا (alluwalla), ڕەنگاوڕەنگ (rengawrreng)

  Northern Kurdish: rengîn (ku)

• Latin: colōrātus m
• Malay: berwarna-warni
• Manx: yl-ghaait
• Māori: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fargerik (no)

  Nynorsk: fargerik

• Pashto: رنګین (rangín)
• Persian: رنگارنگ (fa) (rangârang)
• Plautdietsch: bunt
• Polish: kolorowy (pl), wielobarwny (pl), barwisty, wielokolorowy (pl), różnobarwny (pl), różnokolorowy (pl), tęczowy (pl)
• Portuguese: colorido (pt)
• Romanian: colorat (ro), multicolor (ro)
• Russian: разноцве́тный (ru) (raznocvétnyj), цвета́стый (ru) (cvetástyj) (rare word), я́ркий (ru) (járkij) (bright)
• Serbo-Croatian: šaren (sh), raznobojan (sh)
• Sinhalese: වර්ණවත් (si) (warṇawat)
• Spanish: lleno (es) m, de color, lleno de color
• Swahili: ya rangi nyingi
• Swedish: färgglad (sv), färgrik (sv)
• Tagalog: makulay
• Telugu: రంగురంగుల (te) (raṅguraṅgula)
• Turkish: renkli (tr), alaca (tr), rengarenk (tr)
• Ukrainian: різнокольоро́вий (riznokolʹoróvyj), барви́стий (uk) (barvýstyj)
• Urdu: رنگین (raṅgīn)
• Vietnamese: rực rỡ (vi), sặc sỡ (vi)
• Volapük: kölagik (vo)
• Welsh: lliwgar (cy)
• Yiddish: פֿילפֿאַרביק (filfarbik)
• Zazaki: kelebelek c

interesting, multifaceted

• Bulgarian: интересен (bg) (interesen), колоритен (bg) (koloriten)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 豐富多彩 / 丰富多彩 (zh) (fēngfùduōcǎi)

• Czech: barvitý, pestrý (cs), zajímavý (cs)
• Danish: farverig
• Finnish: värikäs (fi)
• French: coloré (fr)
• German: farbig (de)
• Polish: barwisty, barwny (pl)
• Romanian: colorat (ro)
• Russian: колори́тный (ru) (kolorítnyj), я́ркий (ru) (járkij)
• Spanish: de color
• Ukrainian: колори́тний (uk) (kolorýtnyj), яскра́вий (uk) (jaskrávyj)
• Vietnamese: đầy nghị lực, đầy sinh lực

(euphemistic) profane

• Danish: blomstrende
• Finnish: värikäs (fi)
• Spanish: florido (es), colorado (es)
• Vietnamese: báng bổ (vi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hindi: ^{(please verify)} रंगीन (hi) (raṅgīn)