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piebald

Use the adjective piebald to describe something that has different colored patches — especially black and white patches. If you own a piebald horse, you could name him Spot.

The adjective piebald is a combination of pie and bald. Pie was the original name for magpie a common European bird known for its black and white coloring. Bald did not mean hairless, but meant a white patch, especially on the head (think bald eagle). So something piebald has a combination of black and white coloring and still mostly refers to horses, although the word can refer to other multicolored things.

DEFINITIONS OF: piebald

1

adj having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly

“a piebald horse”
Synonyms:
calico, motley, multi-color, multi-colored, multi-colour, multi-coloured, multicolor, multicolored, multicolour, multicoloured, painted, particolored, particoloured, pied, varicolored, varicoloured
colored, colorful, coloured
having color or a certain color; sometimes used in combination
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