What does "colorism" mean?

Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification.

Colorism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification. US, uncountable, usually
"Black America used to be, and perhaps still is, a pigmentocracy, which means that the social hierarchy is based largely on colorism."
2
A style of painting characterised by the use of intense color. uncountable, usually
"Turner's colorism with its cosmic world view had nothing to do with realism, in spite of its impasto handling of colour. […] Turner's images are based on the far-sighted and purely objective views of the 18th century which he imbued with new meaning through his colorism based on colour theory and plein-air painting."

"Black America used to be, and perhaps still is, a pigmentocracy, which means that the social hierarchy is based largely on colorism."

From color + -ism.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.