The colour of something is the appearance that it has as a result of the way in which it reflects light. Red, blue, and green are colours.

A colour is a substance you use to give something a particular colour. Dyes and make-up are sometimes referred to as colours .

If you colour something, you use something such as dyes or paint to change its colour.

If someone colours, their face becomes redder than it normally is, usually because they are embarrassed.

Someone's colour is the colour of their skin. People often use colour in this way to refer to a person's race.

A colour television, photograph, or picture is one that shows things in all their colours, and not just in black, white, and grey.

Colour is a quality that makes something especially interesting or exciting.

If something colours your opinion, it affects the way that you think about something.

A country's national colours are the colours of its national flag.

People sometimes refer to the flag of a particular part of an army, navy, or air force, or the flag of a particular country as its colours .

A sports team's colours are the colours of the clothes they wear when they play.

If you pass a test with flying colours, you have done very well in the test.

If a film or television programme is in colour, it has been made so that you see the picture in all its colours, and not just in black, white, or grey.

If someone nails their colours to the mast, they say what they really think about something.

If you nail your colours to someone's mast, or if you nail your colours to a particular mast, you show that you support a particular person or issue.

If you say that you want to see the colour of someone's money, you mean that you are not prepared to sell them something or do something for them until they have proved that they have the money to pay for it.

People of colour are people who belong to a race with dark skins.

If you see someone in their true colours or if they show their true colours, you realize what they are really like.