pigment

See also: Pigment

English

Etymology

From Middle English pigment, from Latin pigmentum (“pigment”), itself from pingō (“I paint”) + -mentum; variants of this word may have been known in Old English (e.g. 12th century pyhmentum). Doublet of pimiento, pimento, and piment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪɡ.mənt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

pigment (plural pigments)

1. (biology) Any color in plant or animal cells.

   Chlorophyll is the pigment responsible for most plants' green colouring.

2. A dry colorant, usually an insoluble powder.

   Umber is a pigment made from clay containing iron and manganese oxide.

3. (obsolete) Wine flavoured with spices and honey.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter III, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 61:

     Oswald, broach the oldest wine-cask; place the best mead, the richest morat, the most sparkling cyder, the most odoriferous pigment, upon the board; […]

Derived terms

• accessory pigment
• azo pigment
• bile pigment
• fugitive pigment
• lake pigment
• pigmentary
• pigment dispersion syndrome
• pigmenturia
• respiratory pigment

Translations

any color in plant or animal cells

• Afrikaans: pigment
• Armenian: պիգմենտ (hy) (pigment)
• Asturian: pigmentu m
• Bulgarian: пигмент (bg) m (pigment)
• Catalan: pigment (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 色素 (zh) (sèsù)

• Dutch: pigment (nl) n
• Finnish: pigmentti (fi), väriaine (fi)
• French: pigment (fr) m
• Galician: pigmento (gl) m
• Georgian: პიგმენტი (ṗigmenṭi)
• German: Pigment (de) n
• Greek: χρωστική ουσία f (chrostikí ousía)
• Hebrew: פִּיגְמֶנְט (he) m (pigmént)
• Hungarian: pigment (hu)
• Japanese: 色素 (ja) (しきそ, shikiso), 顔料 (ja) (がんりょう, ganryō)
• Korean: 색소(色素) (saekso)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pigment n

  Nynorsk: pigment n

• Persian: رنگیزه (fa) (rangize)
• Polish: pigment (pl) m
• Portuguese: pigmento (pt) m
• Romanian: pigment (ro) m
• Russian: пигме́нт (ru) m (pigmént)
• Spanish: pigmento (es)
• Swedish: pigment (sv) n
• Tagalog: dinsol
• Vietnamese: sắc tố (vi) (色素)
• Volapük: köl (vo), täin

dry colorant

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: գունանյութ (hy) (gunanyutʻ), ներկանյութ (hy) (nerkanyutʻ)
• Bulgarian: багрило (bg) n (bagrilo)
• Catalan: pigment (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 顏料 / 颜料 (zh) (yánliào), 著色劑 / 着色剂 (zhuósèjì)

• Dutch: pigment (nl) n, kleurstof (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: pigmentti (fi), värijauhe, väriaine (fi)
• Galician: pigmento (gl) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Farbstoff (de) m
• Greek: βαφή (el) f (vafí)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: ábhar datha m, lí f
• Japanese: 顔料 (ja) (がんりょう, ganryō)
• Latin: pigmentum n
• Manchu: ᡳᠴᡝᡴᡠ (iceku)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pigment n

  Nynorsk: pigment n

• Persian: رنگدانه (fa) (rangdâne), پیگمان (pigmân), پیگمنت (pigment)
• Polish: pigment (pl) m
• Portuguese: pigmento (pt) m
• Romanian: pigment (ro) m
• Russian: пигме́нт (ru) m (pigmént), краси́тель (ru) m (krasítelʹ)
• Spanish: pigmento (es) m
• Swedish: pigment (sv) n
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: chất màu
• Volapük: köl (vo)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} pigment (fr) m, ^{(please verify)} colorant (fr) m
• German: ^{(please verify)} Farbstoff (de), ^{(please verify)} Pigment (de) n
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} pigmento
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} pigmento (it) m
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} pigmentum n

Verb

pigment (third-person singular simple present pigments, present participle pigmenting, simple past and past participle pigmented)

1. (transitive) To add color or pigment to something.

Derived terms

• pigmentation

Translations

add color or pigment

• Asturian: pigmentar
• Bulgarian: оцветявам (bg) (ocvetjavam)
• Catalan: pigmentar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 給……上色 / 给……上色 (gěi... shàngshǎi), 著色 / 着色 (zhuósè)

• Dutch: kleuren (nl), pigmenteren
• Finnish: värjätä (fi)
• Galician: pigmentar (gl)
• German: pigmentieren (de)
• Hungarian: pigmentál
• Polish: pigmentować
• Portuguese: pigmentar
• Romanian: pigmenta (ro)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: pigmentar (es)

Anagrams

• empting, temping

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pigmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [piɡˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [piɡˈment]

Noun

pigment m (plural pigments)

1. pigment

Derived terms

• pigmentar

Related terms

• pigmentari
• pigmentat

Further reading

• “pigment” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “pigment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “pigment” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “pigment” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pigmentum (“pigment”), itself from pingō (“I paint”) + -mentum.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pig‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

pigment n (plural pigmenten, diminutive pigmentje n)

1. pigment, coloring substance

Derived terms

• pigmentatie
• pigmenteren
• pigmentering
• pigmentpapier n
• pigmentvreter m

Related terms

• kleurstof

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pigmentum (“pigment”), itself from pingō (“to paint”) + -mentum. Doublet of piment, a borrowing from Spanish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /piɡ.mɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Noun

pigment m (plural pigments)

1. pigment, coloring substance

Derived terms

• pigmentaire
• pigmentation
• pigmenter

Further reading

• “pigment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• pygment

Etymology

From Latin pigmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiɡmɛnt/

Noun

pigment (plural pigmentes)

1. A spice or a blend of them.
2. A red pigment.

Descendants

• English: pigment

References

• “pigment, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pigmentum.

Noun

pigment n (definite singular pigmentet, indefinite plural pigment or pigmenter, definite plural pigmenta or pigmentene)

1. a pigment

References

• “pigment” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pigmentum.

Noun

pigment n (definite singular pigmentet, indefinite plural pigment, definite plural pigmenta)

1. a pigment

References

• “pigment” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin pigmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiɡ.mɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iɡmɛnt
• Syllabification: pig‧ment

Noun

pigment m inan

1. (biology) pigment (any color in plant or animal cells)
2. pigment (dry colorant)

Declension

Declension of pigment

	singular	plural
nominative	pigment	pigmenty
genitive	pigmentu	pigmentów
dative	pigmentowi	pigmentom
accusative	pigment	pigmenty
instrumental	pigmentem	pigmentami
locative	pigmencie	pigmentach
vocative	pigmencie	pigmenty

Derived terms

adjectives

• pigmentowany
• pigmentowy

Related terms

adjective

• pigmentacyjny

noun

• pigmentacja

Further reading

• pigment in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• pigment in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French pigment, Latin pigmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /piɡˈment/

Noun

pigment n (plural pigmenți)

1. pigment

Declension

Declension of pigment

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	pigment	pigmentul		pigmenți	pigmenții
genitive-dative	pigment	pigmentului		pigmenți	pigmenților
vocative	pigmentule			pigmenților

Related terms

• pigmenta
• pigmentație

Further reading

• “pigment”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From German Pigment, from Latin pigmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pǐɡment/
• Hyphenation: pi‧gment

Noun

pìgment m (Cyrillic spelling пѝгмент)

1. pigment

Declension

Declension of pigment

	singular	plural
nominative	pìgment	pigmenti
genitive	pigmenta	pìgmenātā
dative	pigmentu	pigmentima
accusative	pigment	pigmente
vocative	pigmente	pigmenti
locative	pigmentu	pigmentima
instrumental	pigmentom	pigmentima

References

• “pigment”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

pigment n

1. (biology) pigment
2. pigment (in paint)

Declension

Declension of pigment

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	pigment	pigments
	definite	pigmentet	pigmentets
plural	indefinite	pigment	pigments
	definite	pigmenten	pigmentens

See also

• färgämne

References

• pigment in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• pigment in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• pigment in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)