ochre
UK/ˈəʊkə//ˈoʊkɚ/
ochre noun: a clay earth pigment containing silica, aluminum and ferric oxide. Also the obsolete spelling of okra.
Noun
ochre (countable and uncountable, plural ochres)
- A clay earth pigment containing silica, aluminum and ferric oxide.
- A somewhat dark yellowish orange colour.
- The stop codon sequence "UAA".
- Money, especially gold.
- ‘What does he come here cheeking us for, then?’ cried Master Kidderminster, showing a very irascible temperament. ‘If you want to cheek us, pay your ochre at the doors and take it out.’1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 6, in Hard Times
- Any of various brown-coloured hesperiid butterflies of the genus Trapezites.
Adjective
ochre (not comparable)
- Having a yellow-orange colour.
- Referring to cultures that covered their dead with ochre.
Verb
ochre (third-person singular simple present ochres, present participle ochring or ochreing, simple past and past participle ochred)
- To cover or tint with ochre.
- […] his eye was caught by the sight of one child in a group of smaller children playing in the shallows some little distance down—a white child, so white by contrast with the others that at first he thought it must be ochred, which it could not be while playing in the water.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter 14, in Capricornia, New York: Appleton, published 1943, page 229
- The sun gloats in the sky, casting a gleam on the pasture where there was so much umbering and ochreing only moments before.2009 July 6, Verlyn Klinkenborg, “How the Thunder Sounds”, in New York Times
Also used as
ochre is also the obsolete spelling of okra.
ochre meaning in Tagalog, Malay, Indonesian and Persian
ochre in Tagalog
- yellowish-orange colour
- okre
ochre in Malay
- yellowish-orange colour
- oker, hartal
ochre in Indonesian
- yellowish-orange colour
- oker
ochre in Persian
- earth pigment
- اخرا oxrâ, گلک gelak, فاده fāde
More languagesFewer languages
- ochre in Vietnamese
- thổ hoàng
Forms of ochre
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ochres |
| alternative form | ocher |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ochres |
| present participle | ochring |
| present participle | ochreing |
| past participle | ochred |
| past | ochred |
Origin of ochre
From Old French ocre and its source Latin ōchra, from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra, “pale yellow”), from ὠχρός (ōkhrós, “pale, ocher”) (modern Greek ωχρός (ochrós)).
From an unknown West African language, probably Igbo ọ́kụ̀rụ̀, but compare Akan ŋkrũmã and ŋkrakra (“broth”).
Words formed from ochre
Words that rhyme with ochre
Questions about ochre
- What does ochre mean?
- Ochre means a clay earth pigment containing silica, aluminum and ferric oxide.
- What is ochre in Tagalog?
- Ochre in Tagalog is okre. See Ochre meaning in Tagalog.
- What part of speech is ochre?
- Ochre can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ochre?
- Ochre is pronounced /ˈəʊkə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ochre?
- The plural of ochre is ochres.
Words near ochre in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ochre (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: en-us-ochre.ogg, en-au-ochre.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ochre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ochre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.