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)

• (Indic) 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.
   • 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], archived from the original on 19 March 2025:

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

2. Interesting, multifaceted, energetic, distinctive.
   • 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) (pǎ́stǎr)
• 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)
• 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)

• 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)