Meaning & use
brown
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Having the color of earth, wood, or dark coffee.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: brown eyes; the leaves are brown.
Patterns
- brown eyes
- brown with something
She has brown eyes and short dark hair.
The leaves turned brown in October.
He wore a brown leather jacket.
nouncountable or uncountable
The color of soil, wood, or chocolate, between orange and black.
Grammar: Uncountable for the color, countable for a shade: shades of brown.
Patterns
- painted in brown
- a shade of brown
The room was decorated in warm browns and creams.
Brown is her favorite color for coats.
He mixed red and green to get a muddy brown.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To cook food until its surface becomes brown, or to become brown in the sun or heat.
Grammar: Takes an object in cooking, or has none: the onions are browning.
Patterns
- brown something in something
- something browns
Brown the meat in a little oil before adding the tomatoes.
The toast browned too quickly under the grill.
She lay in the sun and began to brown.
Word forms
| comparative | browner |
|---|---|
| superlative | brownest |
| third person singular | browns |
| past tense | browned |
| -ing form | browning |
Common combinations
- light brown
- She wore light brown boots.
- dark brown
- His hair was a dark brown.
- golden brown
- Bake until golden brown.
- brown the onions
- Brown the onions slowly over low heat.
- brown sugar
- Add two spoons of brown sugar to the mixture.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tan
- Tan is a light yellowish brown, often used for skin or leather.
- chestnut
- Chestnut is a rich reddish brown, usually for hair or horses.
- chocolate
- Chocolate names a deep, dark brown and sounds more descriptive than plain brown.
- sear
- Sear is for browning meat quickly at high heat, while brown can be gentler.
Word family
- browned adjective
- cooked until brown on the surface
- brownish adjective
- slightly brown
- brownness noun
- the quality of being brown
- browning noun
- the process of turning brown
Commonly confused: brown or brown vs. burn?
brown vs brown vs. burn
Browning food is gentle cooking until golden, whereas burning ruins it with black, bitter edges.
Practice
Before adding the stock, ___ the beef in a hot pan for a few minutes.
Choose one answer.
Brown means cook the surface until it turns brown. Boil and bake would not give a seared surface in this method.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “brown”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.