colourless
/ˈkʌləlɪs
/(US colorless)
adjective
1(Especially of a gas or liquid) without colour: a colourless liquid colourless nail varnish...
- At room temperature and standard pressure ethers are colorless, neutral liquids with pleasant odors.
- It is a colourless gas produced by the decay of organic matter such as raw sewage, oils, and salt water.
- At atmospheric temperatures, ozone is a colorless gas with an odor similar to chlorine that can usually be detected at a level of about 0.01 parts per million.
Synonyms
uncoloured, white, bleached, faded, washed out
literary achromatic
technical achromic
1.1Dull or pale in hue: her colourless cheeks...
- Her skin was incredibly pale, almost colorless, and her eyes were dull.
- His face was nearly colorless, his skin pale and waxen.
- Both were a deep green color that caused the grey of his eyes to appear pale and colorless in comparison.
Synonyms
pale, pallid, wan, anaemic, bloodless, ashen, white, white as a ghost/sheet, grey, jaundiced, waxen, chalky, chalk-white, milky, pasty, pasty-faced, whey-faced, peaky, sickly, tired-looking, washed out, sallow, drained, drawn, sapped, ghostly, deathly, deathlike, bleached
rare etiolated
2Lacking distinctive character or interest; dull: the book is rather colourless, like its author...
- Unlike many of the colourless characters in golf, there is much more to him than putting and winning tournaments.
- Seldom in world history can so much power have been wielded by such an apparently colourless character.
- A couple of seasons of too much talk, too many colorless characters, and not enough action have left the show in limbo.
Synonyms
uninteresting, dull, boring, tedious, monotonous, dry, drab, dreary, wearisome;
unexciting, bland, non-stimulating, unimaginative, uninspiring, uninspired, weak, insipid, lustreless, lacklustre, vapid, flat, stale, trite, vacuous, feeble, pallid, wishy-washy, limp, lame, tired, lifeless, torpid, unanimated, zestless, spiritless, sterile, anaemic, barren, tame, bloodless, antiseptic;
middle-of-the-road, run-of-the-mill, commonplace, mediocre, nondescript, characterless, mundane, inoffensive, humdrum, prosaic
Derivatives
colourlessly
- Her entire report was delivered colorlessly, without any shade of emotion.
- It is constructed well enough but moves ponderously and colorlessly to its conclusion.
- Not only is it colorlessly written but it ignores much fascinating material.
colourlessness
- The hallways themselves seemed imposing; their very colorlessness made them daunting and cold.
- A few years later, the Goncourt brothers saw in the colorlessness of black-and-white photography a metaphor for the dreariness of their age.
- The sharp contrast between this rail and the colorlessness of my home brings me comfort, to know that perhaps somewhere my pastel family still harbors affection for that which is vivid and unrestrained.