technicolor

T1E1C3H4N1I1C3O1L1O1R1
UK/ˈtɛk.nɪˌkʌl.ə(ɹ)/

adjective

Extremely or excessively colourful.

Less commonScrabble 18

Meanings

technicolor1

adjectivetechnicolor (not comparable)

alternative UK technicolour

  1. USnot comparableExtremely or excessively colourful.

    It's so hard to be a technicolor girl in an earth-tone world.

    2007 May 2, “Letters”, in New York Times
    4 more examples

    I can stand the sight of worms / And look at microscopic germs / But technicolor pachyderms / Is really too much for me

    1941, “Pink Elephants on Parade”, in Ned Washington (lyrics), Oliver Wallace (music), Dumbo

    Technicolour dreams are all I see / Technicolour dreams of you and me

    1968, Anthony King, “Technicolour Dreams”, in Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo, performed by Status Quo

    On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene / But yours was kitchen clean / Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home

    1976, Walter Becker, Donald Fagen, “Kid Charlemagne”, in The Royal Scam, performed by Steely Dan

    How could the electrochemical processes in the lump of gray matter that is our brain give rise to or, even more mysteriously, be the dazzling technicolor play of consciousness, with its transports of joy, its stabs of anguish and its stretches of mild contentment alternating with boredom?

    2007 November 18, Jim Holt, “Mind of a Rock”, in New York Times
  2. not comparablenatural sciencesDescribing something in a technicolor model, a model that is similar to the Standard Model but lacks a scalar Higgs field.
nountechnicolor (plural technicolors)

plural technicolors · alternative UK technicolour

  1. USA process of colour cinematography using synchronised monochrome films, each of a different colour, to produce a colour print.
  2. informalVivid colour.
  3. natural sciencesA collection of theories based on quantum chromodynamics

Technicolor2

nounTechnicolor (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA colour process for motion pictures, developed and used in the twentieth century and known for its hyperrealistic, saturated levels of colour.

    filmed in Technicolor [collocation in movie credits]

adjectiveTechnicolor (not comparable)
  1. not comparableUsing the Technicolor process.

    It was his opinion that 1946's Do You Love Me, a Technicolor musical, would go down much better with 'industrial audiences' than the 'better class' of viewer.

Origin

technicolor · adjective, noun

  1. Proto-Indo-European*teḱ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*tetḱ-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*téḱ-sneh₂
  4. Ancient Greekτεχνο- (tekhno-)
  5. Proto-Indo-European*leǵ-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*léǵ-e-ti
  7. Proto-Hellenic*légō
  8. Ancient Greekλέγω (légō)
  9. Ancient Greekτεχνολόγος (tekhnológos)
  10. Ancient Greekτεχνολογία (tekhnología)
  11. Englishtechnology
  12. Proto-Indo-European*ḱel-
  13. Proto-Indo-European*ḱélōs
  14. Proto-Italic*kelōs
  15. Old Latincolōs
  16. Latincolor
  17. Old Frenchcolor
  18. Anglo-Normancolur
  19. Middle Englishcolour
  20. Englishcolor
  21. EnglishTechnicolor
  22. Englishtechnicolor

From Technicolor.

Full word history & related roots →

Technicolor · noun, adjective

  1. Proto-Indo-European*teḱ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*tetḱ-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*téḱ-sneh₂
  4. Ancient Greekτεχνο- (tekhno-)
  5. Proto-Indo-European*leǵ-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*léǵ-e-ti
  7. Proto-Hellenic*légō
  8. Ancient Greekλέγω (légō)
  9. Ancient Greekτεχνολόγος (tekhnológos)
  10. Ancient Greekτεχνολογία (tekhnología)
  11. Englishtechnology
  12. Proto-Indo-European*ḱel-
  13. Proto-Indo-European*ḱélōs
  14. Proto-Italic*kelōs
  15. Old Latincolōs
  16. Latincolor
  17. Old Frenchcolor
  18. Anglo-Normancolur
  19. Middle Englishcolour
  20. Englishcolor
  21. EnglishTechnicolor

Blend of technology + color. A trademark (1916), in reference to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where two of its three developers met.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

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Cite this entry
APA

technicolor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/technicolor

MLA

“technicolor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/technicolor. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “technicolor,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/technicolor.

Source: technicolor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.