English Club : Learn English : Vocabulary : Colours

Colours

Note that these colours may vary slightly, depending on your browser and operating system.

In American English "colour" is written "color" and "grey" is written "gray".

The 7 colours of the rainbow

The seven colours of the rainbow are the "visible" part of the electro-magnetic spectrum - they are visible to (or can be seen by) the human eye. A rainbow is what we sometimes see in the sky when the sun is shining and it is raining somewhere at the same time.

ultra-violet not a colour - invisible to the human eye
7 violet These are the 7 colors of the rainbow - the "visible spectrum" (visible to the human eye)
6 indigo
5 blue
4 green
3 yellow
2 orange
1 red
infra-red not a colour - invisible to the human eye

This mnemonic can help you remember the colours of the rainbow and their order:
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

The prefix "infra-" means "below" or "under". Infra-red is "below" the colour red (and not visible). The prefix "ultra-" means "beyond". Ultra-violet is "beyond" the colour violet (and not visible).

A few other colours

Technically, white is not a colour (it is a combination of all colours), and black is not a colour (it is the absence of all colours). But in normal language we usually describe white, black and grey as colours.

white
grey
black
 
brown
pink