brown
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A deep, earthy color, like tree bark or coffee.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
brownIPA pronunciation (US)
bɹaʊn
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A deep, earthy color, like tree bark or coffee.
A colour like that of chocolate or coffee.
“The browns and greens in this painting give it a nice woodsy feel.”
sometimes capitalised
A person of Middle Eastern, Latino or South Asian descent; a brown-skinned person; someone of mulatto or biracial appearance.
Black tar heroin.
entomology
Any of certain species of nymphalid butterflies of subfamily Satyrinae, such as those of the genera Heteronympha and Melanitis.
entomology
Any of various nymphalid butterflies of subfamily Satyrinae (formerly the family Satyridae).
adjective
Having a brown colour.
verb
To give a bright brown colour to, as to gun barrels, by forming a thin coating of oxide on their surface.
To tan.
“Light-skinned people tend to brown when exposed to the sun.”
To become brown.
“Fry the onions until they brown.”
To make brown or dusky.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: a deep, earthy color, like tree bark or coffee.
Used this way, brown is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Deep / colournoun
“The browns and greens in this painting give it a nice woodsy feel.”
Becomeverb
“Fry the onions until they brown.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.