COLOURFUL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does colourful mean? 

• COLOURFUL (adjective)
  The adjective COLOURFUL has 2 senses:

1. striking in variety and interest

2. having much or varied color

  Familiarity information: COLOURFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLOURFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Striking in variety and interest

Synonyms:

colorful; colourful

Context example:

colorful language

Similar:

brave; braw; gay (brightly colored and showy)

flashy; gaudy; jazzy; showy; sporty ((used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display)

many-sided (full of variety or interest)

noisy (attracting attention by showiness or bright colors)

picturesque (strikingly expressive)

Antonym:

colourless (lacking in variety and interest)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having much or varied color

Synonyms:

colorful; colourful

Context example:

colorful autumn leaves

Similar:

ablaze (resembling flame in brilliance or color)

bright; brilliant; vivid (having strong or striking color)

changeable; chatoyant; iridescent; shot (varying in color when seen in different lights or from different angles)

deep; rich (strong; intense)

fluorescent (brilliantly colored and apparently giving off light)

prismatic (exhibiting spectral colors formed by refraction of light through a prism)

psychedelic (having the vivid colors and bizarre patterns associated with psychedelic states)

shrill (of colors that are bright and gaudy)

vibrant (of colors that are bright and striking)

Also:

chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)

Attribute:

color; colour; vividness (interest and variety and intensity)

 Context examples 

This colourful stripe of stars, gas, and dust is actually a spiral galaxy named NGC 1055.

(A Galaxy on the Edge, ESO)

In April, archaeologists unearthed several mummies, 10 colourful wooden sarcophagi and more than 1,000 funerary statues near the city of Luxor.

(Egypt Announces Discovery of 3,500-Year-Old Luxor Tomb, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This colourful image was captured by the powerful MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), as part of a study which mapped the dust inside a planetary nebula for the first time.

(The Strange Structures of the Saturn Nebula, ESO)