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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

brown.

A colour like that of chocolate or coffee.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɹaʊ̯n/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɹæʊ̯n//ˈbɹaːn//bɹuːn/Northumbria
  1. A colour like that of chocolate or coffee.

    countable · uncountable
    The browns and greens in this painting give it a nice woodsy feel.
    He wore brown jeans for his birthday.
  2. One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of 4 points.

    countable
  3. Black tar heroin.

    uncountable
  4. A copper coin.

    archaic · countable · slang
  5. A brown horse or other animal.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A person of mostly Latin American (or Latino), Middle Eastern/North African, South Asian, and sometimes Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, or rarely Native American descent; a brown-skinned person; someone of mulatto, or biracial appearance.

    capitalized · countable · ethnic · informal · slur · sometimes
  7. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of subfamily Satyrinae (formerly the family Satyridae), such as those of the genera Heteronympha and Melanitis.

    countable · uncountable
  8. A brown trout (Salmo trutta).

    countable · informal · uncountable
  9. A mass of birds or animals that may be indiscriminately fired at.

    countable · uncountable
  10. A brown dye or pigment.

    countable · uncountable
  11. A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of brown pigment.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-? Proto-Germanic *brūnaz Proto-West Germanic *brūn Old English brūn Middle English broun English brown Inherited from Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-. Doublet of bruin. Cognates * Dutch bruin * German braun * Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish brun * Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”) * Latin brunneus (“brown”) * Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”) * Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”) * West Frisian brún

adj/ˈbɹaʊ̯n/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɹæʊ̯n//ˈbɹaːn//bɹuːn/Northumbria
  1. Having a brown color/colour.

  2. Gloomy.

    obsolete
  3. Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin. Latino/Latin American

    US · capitalized · sometimes
  4. Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin. of color.

    US · broadly · capitalized · sometimes
  5. Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin. South Asian or sometimes Middle Eastern or North African

    capitalized · sometimes
  6. Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin. Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, or sometimes Native American

    capitalized · sometimes
  7. Not green (environmentally irresponsible); anti-green (against environmental protection).

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-? Proto-Germanic *brūnaz Proto-West Germanic *brūn Old English brūn Middle English broun English brown Inherited from Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-. Doublet of bruin. Cognates * Dutch bruin * German braun * Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish brun * Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”) * Latin brunneus (“brown”) * Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”) * Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”) * West Frisian brún

verb/ˈbɹaʊ̯n/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɹæʊ̯n//ˈbɹaːn//bɹuːn/Northumbria
  1. To become brown.

    intransitive
    Fry the onions until they brown.
  2. Synonym of poop (“to defecate”).

    childish
    I've just browned myself.
  3. To cook something until it becomes brown.

    transitive
  4. To tan.

    intransitive · transitive
    Light-skinned people tend to brown when exposed to the sun.
  5. To make brown or dusky.

    transitive
  6. To give a bright brown colour to, as to gun barrels, by forming a thin coating of oxide on their surface.

    transitive
  7. To turn progressively more Hispanic or Latino, in the context of the population of a geographic region.

    derogatory · ethnic · intransitive · offensive · slang · slur · transitive · usually
    the browning of America
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-? Proto-Germanic *brūnaz Proto-West Germanic *brūn Old English brūn Middle English broun English brown Inherited from Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-. Doublet of bruin. Cognates * Dutch bruin * German braun * Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish brun * Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”) * Latin brunneus (“brown”) * Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”) * Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”) * West Frisian brún

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.