Schemochrome
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Colouration produced by microscopic structures that reflect/refract light rather than pigments.
"First, a blue pigment is known from birds (rhodoxanthin, a xanthophyll producing the blue of fruit pigeons, Ptilinopus; see Buckley 1982 : 61), although the blue of parrots is almost certainly not based on a pigment (biochrome), but rather is a schemochrome (structural color)."
Example
More examples"First, a blue pigment is known from birds (rhodoxanthin, a xanthophyll producing the blue of fruit pigeons, Ptilinopus; see Buckley 1982 : 61), although the blue of parrots is almost certainly not based on a pigment (biochrome), but rather is a schemochrome (structural color)."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek σχῆμα (skhêma, “shape”) + -chrome, from χρῶμα (khrôma, “colour”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.