Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See ocher.

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

  • noun (Min.) See ocher.

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

  • noun An earth pigment containing silica, aluminum and ferric oxide
  • noun A somewhat dark yellowish orange colour
  • noun molecular biology, colloquial The stop codon sequence "UAA."
  • adjective Having a yellow-orange colour.
  • adjective archaeology Referring to cultures that covered their dead with ochre.
  • verb to cover with ochre

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

  • noun any of various earths containing silica and alumina and ferric oxide; used as a pigment
  • noun a moderate yellow-orange to orange color
  • adjective of a moderate orange-yellow color

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French ocre and its source Latin ōchra, from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ōkhra, "pale yellow").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ochre.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • When I see this word, I always start singing the lyric "How'd you like a flag that features fleur-de-lys on ochre corrugated tin?"

    October 6, 2008

  • From which song is that lyric?

    October 6, 2008

  • "Everybody Wants to Be an Art Director" by Stan Freberg.

    October 6, 2008

  • Thank you. I ask because my state flag has a desert rose (okay, not fleur-de-lys but at least a fleur) on an ochre background, and corrugated tin/iron is somewhat cherished as a building material here. Strange.

    October 6, 2008

  • I lurve Stan Freberg.

    October 7, 2008

  • bilby, I just found this again and wondered if you'd be interested in the lyrics found on puce.

    April 17, 2009

  • Ah, yep. Got'em now. Lyric makes sense :-) But do you think Freberg hates freedom?

    April 17, 2009