beige

beige — noun

1. a soft pale shade between brown, yellow, and grey.

1.nounB2
Definition

a soft pale shade between brown, yellow, and grey.

Example

For the hallway walls, Nina chose a soft beige.

noun after choose: chose a soft beige

The sofa came in black, white, and a warm beige.

colour name after in

Common collocations
  • soft beige
  • warm beige
  • choose beige
  • paint card
  • in beige
Synonyms
  • cream

    is usually lighter and closer to off-white than beige.

  • tan

    often suggests a darker or warmer brown than beige.

  • sand

    can be a nearby colour name, but it often feels slightly yellower.

Grammar Patterns

in beige

a soft beige

paint something beige

choose beige

beige walls

Usage Note

Often appears as a colour label after verbs like choose, paint, wear, and prefer. In everyday speech, people may use the adjective more often than the noun when directly describing an object, as in beige curtains.

Common Mistakes

I want a beige colour shirt.
I want a beige shirt.
when beige describes the shirt directly, it usually works as an adjective before the noun.
The wall is a beige.
The wall is beige.
after be, English normally uses beige as an adjective for the object's colour.

beige — adjective

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

For this sense, beige names a soft, light brown shade that often has a yellow or grey touch. Cream is usually paler and closer to off-white, so it fits lighter walls or clothes. Tan often sounds warmer and darker, and it can suggest the colour of skin after sun. Light brown is the broadest choice and works when you do not need a precise shade name. If a coat is beige, the colour sounds quiet and specific. If it is light brown, the description is simpler and less exact. A shop might sell beige curtains, but a child's drawing might just label the same colour light brown.

beige ↗cream ↗tan ↗light brown

Etymology

FrenchEnglish

Beige came into English through French. It first referred to a natural woollen cloth before it became the name of the cloth's light brown colour. In modern English, the colour meaning is the main one, and the word is widely used for clothes, paint, and interior design.