Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A substance used as coloring.
  • noun Dry coloring matter, usually an insoluble powder, to be mixed with water, oil, or another base to produce paint and similar products.
  • noun A substance, such as chlorophyll or melanin, that produces a characteristic color in plant or animal tissue.
  • transitive verb To color with pigment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any substance that is or can be used by painters to impart color to bodies; technically, a dry substance, usually in the form of a powder or in lumps so lightly held together as to be easily pulverized, which after it has been mixed with a liquid medium can be applied by painters to surfaces to be colored.
  • noun In biology, organic coloring matter; any organized substance whose presence in the tissues of animals and plants colors them.
  • noun Highly spiced wine sweetened with honey; piment.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Any material from which a dye, a paint, or the like, may be prepared; particularly, the refined and purified coloring matter ready for mixing with an appropriate vehicle.
  • noun (Physiol.) Any one of the colored substances found in animal and vegetable tissues and fluids, as bilirubin, urobilin, chlorophyll, etc.
  • noun Wine flavored with species and honey.
  • noun (Physiol.) a small cell containing coloring matter, as the pigmented epithelial cells of the choroid and iris, or the pigmented connective tissue cells in the skin of fishes, reptiles, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology Any color in plant or animal cells
  • noun A dry colorant, usually an insoluble powder
  • noun obsolete Wine flavoured with spices and honey.
  • verb transitive To add color or pigment to something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun dry coloring material (especially a powder to be mixed with a liquid to produce paint, etc.)
  • noun any substance whose presence in plant or animal tissues produces a characteristic color
  • verb color or dye with a pigment
  • noun a substance used as a coating to protect or decorate a surface (especially a mixture of pigment suspended in a liquid); dries to form a hard coating
  • verb acquire pigment; become colored or imbued

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, spice, red dye, from Latin pigmentum, from pingere, to paint; see peig- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pigmentum ("pigment"), itself from pingō ("I paint") + -mentum; variants of this word may have been known in Old English (e.g. 12th century pyhmentum).

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Examples

Comments

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  • When you dream in color it's a pigment of your imagination. :P

    April 23, 2010

  • Beautiful play, 'ros.

    April 24, 2010