Meaning & use
rainbow
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Meanings
nouncountable
A curved band of colors that appears in the sky when sunlight shines through drops of water.
Grammar: Countable: you can see 'a rainbow' or 'two rainbows'.
Patterns
- a rainbow appears
- see a rainbow
After the storm, a beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky.
We saw a double rainbow over the hills.
nouncountablefigurative
A wide variety of different things or opinions, especially when they are colorful or diverse.
Grammar: Often used in the phrase 'a rainbow of something'.
Patterns
- a rainbow of something
The festival attracted a rainbow of cultures from around the world.
The committee includes a rainbow of opinions on the issue.
Word forms
| plural | rainbows |
|---|
Common combinations
- a rainbow appears
- A rainbow appeared after the rain.
- chase a rainbow
- He's always chasing rainbows instead of facing reality.
- the colors of the rainbow
- The flag has all the colors of the rainbow.
- a rainbow of colors
- The garden was a rainbow of colors in spring.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- rainbow-colored adjective
- Having many bright colors like a rainbow.
Commonly confused: rainbow or rain bow?
rainbow vs rain bow
Sometimes spelled as two words by mistake, but the correct spelling is one word: 'rainbow'.
Practice
After the rain, we saw a colorful ______ in the sky.
Choose one answer.
'Rainbow' is the correct singular noun. 'Rain bow' is a misspelling. 'Rainbows' is plural and does not fit with 'a'. 'Rainbowed' is not a standard word.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rainbow”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.