Word.ws English Dictionary

coloring

coloring adjective: that colors something. Also the present participle and gerund of color.

Adjective

coloring (comparative more coloring, superlative most coloring)

  1. That colors something.
  2. (also, figuratively) That conveys or imparts color.

Noun

coloring (countable and uncountable, plural colorings)

  1. An act or process which applies color.
  2. Any substance used to give color.
    • Our cookies contain no artificial flavorings or colorings.
    • The Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday a series of measures to phase out eight artificial food dyes and colorings from America's food supply by the end of next year. […] The proposal also outlined a commitment for companies to supply...2025 April 22, Sony Salzman, Cheyenne Haslett, Will McDuffie, and Mary Kekatos, “RFK Jr. unveils plan to phase out 8 artificial food dyes in the US”, in ABC News
    Synonyms:
    pigment
  3. The appearance as to color.
    • The Rolands, both U.S.-educated lawyers with faculty positions in the national law school, are olive skinned, with the coloring of some Italians or Sephardic Jews.1983 December 24, Andrea Loewenstein, “"What's Freedom Without Food In Your Stomach?" — A Trip to Haiti”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 8
    Synonyms:
    coloration
  4. A disguise or discoloration.
  5. An assignment of a color to each vertex of a graph, usually such that no two vertices connected by an edge are given the same color.

Also used as

coloring is also the present participle and gerund of color.

Examples of coloring in a sentence

  • Where Susy has trouble coloring inside the lines, Johnny has already mastered shading.
  • Lastly, the coloring and shading does not qualify the Work as copyrightable.
  • You can make window clings by using thin transparency sheets, school glue, food coloring, and templates.

All 32 example sentences with coloring

Synonyms of coloring

Antonyms

Forms of coloring

Adjective
comparativemore coloring
superlativemost coloring
alternative UKcolouring
Noun
pluralcolorings

Words formed from coloring

Phrases with coloring

Questions about coloring

What does coloring mean?
Coloring means that colors something.
What part of speech is coloring?
Coloring can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near coloring in the dictionary

  1. colorimetrist
  2. colorimetrists
  3. colorimetry
  4. colorine
  5. colorines
  6. coloring
  7. coloring book
  8. coloring books
  9. coloring by number
  10. coloring in
  11. coloring inside the lines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coloring (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-coloring.wav.

Cite this entry: “coloring.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coloring. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.