brown

/braʊn/

/braʊn/

Other forms: browned; browns; browner; browning; brownest; brownly

Brown is the color an artist gets by mixing yellow, red, and blue. Chocolate, dark wood, roasted coffee beans, and old-fashioned photographs are all various shades of brown.

You might think of brown as a muddy color, and that's true in a couple of ways: mud is generally brown, and brown paint is a muddy combination of colors. In the category of brown, though, there's endless variety, from toasted bread to rich brown eyes to a horse's light brown mane. As a verb, brown means "to become browner in color" or "to make browner," as when you brown the top of a pie in the oven.

Definitions of brown

1. adjective

   of a color similar to that of wood or earth
   synonyms: brownish, chocolate-brown, dark-brown

   chromatic

   being, having, or characterized by hue
2. adjective

   (of skin) deeply suntanned
   synonyms: browned

   brunet, brunette

   marked by dark or relatively dark pigmentation of hair or skin or eyes
3. noun

   an orange of low brightness and saturation
   synonyms: brownness

   types:

   Vandyke brown

   a moderate brown color

   chestnut

   the brown color of chestnuts

   burnt umber, chocolate, coffee, deep brown, umber

   a medium brown to dark-brown color

   hazel

   a shade of brown that is yellowish or reddish; it is a greenish shade of brown when used to describe the color of someone's eyes

   light brown

   a brown that is light but unsaturated

   mocha

   a dark brown color

   Venetian red, burnt sienna, mahogany, reddish brown, sepia

   a shade of brown with a tinge of red

   buff, caramel, caramel brown, raw sienna, yellowish brown

   a medium to dark tan color

   puce

   a color varying from dark purplish brown to dark red

   olive brown

   a shade of brown tinged with green

   taupe

   a greyish brown

   tan, topaz

   a light brown the color of topaz

   dun, fawn, grayish brown, greyish brown

   a color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color

   beige, ecru

   a very light brown

   brick red

   a bright reddish-brown color

   copper, copper color

   a reddish-brown color resembling the color of polished copper

   Indian red

   a reddish-brown color resembling the red soil used as body paint by American Indians

   snuff-color, snuff-colour

   dark yellowish brown

   type of:

   chromatic color, chromatic colour, spectral color, spectral colour

   a color that has hue
4. verb

   make brown in color
   synonyms: embrown

   type of:

   color, color in, colorise, colorize, colour, colour in, colourise, colourize

   add color to
5. verb

   fry in a pan until it changes color
   “brown the meat in the pan”

   type of:

   cook

   transform and make suitable for consumption by heating