col ‧ our ‧ ful BrE AmE British English , colorful American English /ˈkʌləf ə l $ -lər-/ adjective
[ Word Family: noun : COLOUR/COLOR , COLOURING/COLORING , ↑ coloration , COLOURANT/COLORANT , COLOURIST/COLORIST ; adjective : COLOURED/COLORED , discoloured/discolored, COLOURFUL/COLORFUL ≠ COLOURLESS/COLORLESS , ↑ multicoloured , COLOUR/COLOR ; verb : COLOUR/COLOR ; adverb : COLOURFULLY/COLORFULLY ≠ COLOURLESSLY/COLORLESSLY ]
1 . having bright colours or a lot of different colours:
a colourful display of flowers
colorful costumes
2 . interesting, exciting, and full of variety
colourful history/past/career/life
Charlie Chaplin had a long and colorful career.
colourful character/figure (=someone who is interesting and unusual)
3 . colourful language, speech etc uses a lot of swearing
—colourfully adverb
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THESAURUS
■ bright colours
▪ bright used about a colour that is strong and easy to see:
The front door was painted bright red.
▪ brilliant/vivid used about a colour that is very bright:
I looked out at the brilliant blue sky.
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vivid red flowers
▪ colourful British English , colorful American English used about things that have many different bright colours:
There were window boxes full of colourful flowers.
▪ multicoloured British English , multicolored American English used about things that have a pattern of many different bright colours:
A multicoloured flag waved in the midday sun.
▪ gaudy/garish too brightly coloured, in a way that is unattractive:
The wallpaper was much too gaudy for me.
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a garish orange tie