Meaning & use
pigment
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A natural or manufactured substance that gives color to paint, ink, plastic, skin, or other material.
Grammar: Use a pigment for kinds and some pigment for an amount of coloring material.
Patterns
- a red pigment
- add pigment to paint
- natural pigment
The artist mixed a blue pigment with linseed oil.
This sunscreen uses iron oxide as a pigment.
nouncountable or uncountablebiologytechnical
A biological substance that produces color in eyes, skin, hair, leaves, or other living tissue.
Grammar: Common in biology; often modified by a color or function, as in skin pigment.
Patterns
- skin pigment
- melanin pigment
- plant pigment
Melanin is the main pigment that gives skin its color.
Chlorophyll is a green pigment in leaves.
verbtransitivetechnical
To color material by adding pigment to it.
Grammar: Takes an object: pigment the resin; rare compared with the noun.
Patterns
- pigment a material
- pigment something during production
The factory pigments the plastic during mixing rather than coating it later.
Textiles can be pigment printed for bright, economical color.
Word forms
| plural noun | pigments |
|---|---|
| third person singular verb | pigments |
| past tense | pigmented |
| past participle | pigmented |
| -ing form | pigmenting |
Common combinations
- natural pigment
- The cave painters used natural pigment from earth and charcoal.
- synthetic pigment
- A synthetic pigment gives the toy its bright yellow color.
- skin pigment
- Doctors explained how sun exposure changes skin pigment.
- pigment production
- Pigment production must meet safety rules for children's products.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dye
- A dye usually dissolves in liquid and enters fibers; pigment is usually particles that sit on or within a binder.
- colorant
- Colorant is a broad technical term for any coloring substance, while pigment specifically means colored particles.
- stain
- A stain soaks into a surface and is absorbed; pigment often needs paint, ink, or another binder.
Word family
- pigmented adjective
- Having color or colored material, as in heavily pigmented skin.
- pigmentation noun
- The coloring of skin, hair, leaves, or other tissue.
- pigmentary adjective
- Relating to pigment, used in technical contexts.
Commonly confused: pigment or pigmentum? pigment or piglet?
pigment vs pigmentum
Not the English base form; English uses pigment, while pigmentum is Latin or a technical product name.
pigment vs piglet
A piglet is a young pig, unrelated to color.
Practice
Choose the best word: The leaf's green color comes from a plant ______ called chlorophyll.
Choose one answer.
Chlorophyll is a coloring substance, so pigment fits; piglet and piggery are pig-farming words, and pikey is unrelated and offensive.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pigment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.