Paint samples named Cape Cod or Sunshine. Nail polish called Ticket to Ride or Daddy's Girl. There is no end to the ways to name a color, and as marketing experts dating back to the days of Montgomery Ward can tell you, the words we use to conjure color matter a great deal.
Colors can indicate mood, spark a reader's imagination, and remind them that what a writer is describing is attached to reality. Varying your color words, and even using color to surprise your reader and refocus their attention, can bring energy and specificity to your prose.
That said, color words can be hard to come up with on the fly. Remember the circle clapping game Categories? Asked to name a color under pressure, many brains will seize up after exhausting the rainbow standards.
Here are two lists that will be sure to inspire you to get more colorful in your prose. Or in case you're in agreement with Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper, who explains that written definitions are tricky when it comes to words for color ("One man's 'taupe' is another’s 'beige' is another's 'bone' is another's 'eggshell' is another's 'sand' is another's 'tan,'" she writes) it can be fun to browse the many versions of color charts available on the web. (We sourced the one above from a blog post about matching makeup to skin and eyeshade; it may have originated here.)
List #1: 195 Words for Color. We made this list using our Dictionary's Advanced Search feature combined with our List Building tool. Read how you can make category lists like this one here.
List #2: Non-Color Words to Use When Describing Color We made this list based on the graphic above. Watch this video to learn how you can make lists of your own.
