# colored

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈkʌləɹd/ · frequency rank #5,202

## Definitions
1. Having a color.
2. Having a particular color or kind of color.
3. Having prominent colors; colorful.
4. Biased; pervasively (but potentially subtly) influenced in a particular way.
5. Of skin color other than white; in particular, black.
6. Belonging to a multiracial ethnic group or category, having ancestry from more than one of the racial groups of Southern Africa (black, white, and Asian). (Under apartheid, used as a metadescription for mixed-race people and peoples such as the Cape Coloureds.)
7. Designated for use by colored people (in either the US or South African sense).

## Etymology
From color + -ed.

## Easily confused with
- **colors** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/colored-vs-colors)
- **cooked** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/colored-vs-cooked)
- **cooled** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/colored-vs-cooled)
- **covered** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/colored-vs-covered)
- **coloured** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/colored-vs-coloured)
- **color** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/color-vs-colored)
- **closed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/closed-vs-colored)
- **colonel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/colonel-vs-colored)
- **Colorado** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/colorado-vs-colored)
- **collared** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/collared-vs-colored)

## Common misspellings (10)
`ccolored`, `cloored`, `collored`, `coloerd`, `colorde`, `coloredd`, `colorred`, `colroed`, `coolred`, `oclored`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/colored