Umber

//ˈʌmbə// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A brown clay, somewhat darker than ochre, which contains iron and manganese oxides. countable, uncountable

    "I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, And with a kind of umber smirch my face; The like do you; so shall we pass along, And never stir assailants."

  2. 2
    a medium brown to dark-brown color wordnet
  3. 3
    Alternative form of umbrere. alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    an earth pigment wordnet
  5. 5
    A grayling. countable, uncountable
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A dusky brown African wading bird (Scopus umbretta) allied to the shoebill and herons; a hamerkop. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To give a reddish-brown colour to. transitive

    "Armies o'er armies heap'd, the locusts came, Like clouds in autumn umbering all the sky […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of a reddish brown colour, like that of the pigment. not-comparable

    "Their harps are of the umber shade / That hides the blush of waking day."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of the color of any of various natural brown earth pigments wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
chocolatebeigebrownbrownishbrownish-yellowbrunet

Example

More examples

"I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, And with a kind of umber smirch my face; The like do you; so shall we pass along, And never stir assailants."

Etymology

From Middle French ombre (“umber”), from terre d'ombre (“dark ochre”), from Old French umbre (“shade, shadow”), from Latin umbra. Doublet of umbra.

Related phrases

Cologne umberCumbrian umberburnt umberburnt umbermottled umberolivaceous-umberraw umberumber birdumber moth

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