COLORFUL


Meaning of COLORFUL in English

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

• • •

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

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.