Meanings
alternative varicoloured
- Having a variety of colors.
Near-synonyms: motley, multicolor, multicoloured, particoloured, particolour; see also Thesaurus:multicolored
4 more examples
[…] the habit of the greater part of them is only a wreath of Callico tyed about their heads; their mid-parts are circled with a Zone of vari-colored plad, and have Sandalls upon their feet, elsewhere being naked […]
1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique, Book 2, p, 128The Fisherman looked into the water and was much astonished to see therein vari-coloured fishes, white and red, blue and yellow; however he cast his net and, hauling it in, saw that he had netted four fishes, one of each colour.
1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume I, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 62The varicolored cloud of dust that the sun had stirred up in the sky was settling by slow degrees.
1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 1, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 15Watching Jesse Jackson in tears in Grant Park, pressed up against the varicolored American public, it seemed like he, at least, had received the answer he needed: only a many-voiced man could have spoken to that many people.
2009, Zadie Smith, “Speaking in Tongues”, in Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, New York: PenguinSynonyms: variegated, motley, multicolor, multicoloured, particoloured, particolour, aurora-colored (US) / aurora-coloured, colorful (US) / colourful
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveHaving a variety of colors.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivehaving a variety of colors
adjectivehaving sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Bulgarian разноцве́тен
- разноцве́тен (raznocvéten)having a variety of colours
Czech pestrobarevný, vícebarevný
- pestrobarevnýhaving a variety of colours
- vícebarevnýhaving a variety of colours
Esperanto bunta, mikskolora
- buntahaving a variety of colours
- mikskolorahaving a variety of colours
Finnish monivärinen, värikäs
- monivärinenhaving a variety of colours
- värikäshaving a variety of colours
- kirjavahaving a variety of colours
Italian policromo
- policromohaving a variety of colours
Portuguese policromo
- policromohaving a variety of colours
Romanian pestriț
- pestrițhaving a variety of colours
Russian разноцве́тный
- разноцве́тный (raznocvétnyj)having a variety of colours
Spanish policromo
- policromohaving a variety of colours
Cite this entry
varicolored. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/varicolored
“varicolored.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/varicolored. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “varicolored,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/varicolored.
Source: varicolored on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.