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chromatic

chro·ma·tic

UK/kɹəˈmæt.ɪk/ US/kɹəʊˈmæt.ɪk/ uncommon

adjective

1.

able to refract light without spectral color separation

  • “chromatic lens”
2.

based on a scale consisting of 12 semitones

  • “a chromatic scale”
Antonyms
3.

Origin

Borrowed from French chromatique (“chromatic”) or directly from its etymon Latin chrōmaticus, from Ancient Greek χρωματικός (khrōmatikós, “relating to colour; one of the three types of tetrachord in Greek music”), from χρῶμα (khrôma, “colour; pigment; chromatic scale in music; music”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to grind; to rub; to stroke; to remove”), perhaps in the sense of the grinding of pigments) + -τῐκός (-tĭkós, suffix forming adjectives); analysable as chroma + -tic.

Phrases

  • chromatic aberration
  • chromatic number
  • chromatic scale
  • chromatic semitone

Related words

Word family

See also

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.