What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

What is the difference between rainbow and blue?

rainbow | blue |

Rainbow is a see also of blue.


As nouns the difference between rainbow and blue

is that rainbow is a multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air while blue is the colour of the clear sky or the deep sea, between green and violet in the visible spectrum, and one of the primary additive colours for transmitted light; the colour obtained by subtracting red and green from white light using magenta and cyan filters; or any colour resembling this.

As adjectives the difference between rainbow and blue

is that rainbow is multicoloured while blue is having a bluish colour shade.

As verbs the difference between rainbow and blue

is that rainbow is to pattern with many colours, like a rainbow while blue is (ergative) to make or become blue.

rainbow

English

(wikipedia rainbow)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.
  • Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.
  • A wide assortment; a varied multitude.
    • ''a rainbow of possibilities
  • (label) An illusion, mirage.
    • ''Many electoral promises are rainbows , vanishing soon after poll day.
  • (baseball) A curveball, particularly a slow one.
  • (poker slang) In Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, a flop that contains three different suits.

    • Quotations

    * 1911 , Francis R. Steel, Catching the Rainbow Trout'', in ''The Outing Magazine , volume 58, page 482: *: Finally, by actual trial, I have found that I can catch more rainbow by using one fly than with a two or three-fly cast. * 1994 , John Simon, Of Dogs, Their Masters, and Others'', in ''New York magazine, September 5 1994, page 51: *: That Asian-American actor Thomas Ikeda contributes a pleasingly frantic Panthino would not be considered rainbow enough.

    Synonyms

    * (prismatic reflection) spectrum

    Derived terms

    * chase rainbows * end of the rainbow * lunar rainbow * marine rainbow * rainbow coalition * rainbow fish * rainbow perch * rainbow runner * rainbow trout * rainbow wrasse * somewhere over the rainbow * supernumerary rainbow

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Multicoloured.
  • (attributive, chiefly, US) Made up of several races or ethnicities, or (more broadly) of several cultural or ideological factions.
  • * 2006 , Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan, Sinatra: The Life , page 246:
    • He went along with them because the Pack was a rainbow group — two Italian-Americans, a black man, a Jew (Bishop), and a sometime Englishman (Lawford) — and they were making a point.
  • * 2007 , Melissa Haussman, Birgit Sauer, Gendering the state in the age of globalization , page 67:
    • The 1999 June elections led to a surprise change in the governing coalition from the long-term ruling Christian Democrats to a rainbow group of Greens, Liberals, and Socialists.
  • * 2007 , Hooson, in a Letter to the Western Mail, 19 June 2007, published in Crossing the Rubicon: coalition politics Welsh style by John Osmond, page 28:
    • [...] it seemed to me to be naive indeed for the Liberal Democrats to believe that they could simply enter into a rainbow alliance against the Labour Government.
  • * 2008 , Bidyut Chakrabarty, Indian politics and society since independence , page 76:
    • Mayawati has succeeded in building a social coalition that inverts the pyramid of caste/class hierarchy by building a rainbow alliance of social groups, now dominated by that greatest underclass of all, namely Dalits.
  • (attributive) LGBT.
  • * 2005 , Alan McKee, The public sphere: an introduction , page 167:
    • Similarly, the question of who belongs in such a rainbow alliance isn't set. It can include gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals. It can include people who are 'questioning' which culture they belong to [...]
  • (poker, chiefly, of a flop) Composed]] entirely of different [[suit#Noun, suits.

    • Usage notes

    In the United States, 'rainbow' groups/families/alliances/coalitions were originally those made up of several races or ethnicities. The term is now used more broadly, to refer (in the 2007 quotation, for example) to an alliance of several political parties.

    References

    * Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To pattern with many colours, like a rainbow.

    • blue

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (obsolete) * (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Of the colour blue.
  • (lb) Depressed, melancholic, sad.
  • *
  • *:“Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue'-stocking and the fogy!—and yours ''are'' pale '''blue , Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling ''à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better.”
  • Pale, without redness or glare; said of a flame.
  • Pornographic or profane.
  • (lb) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.
  • #
  • # Supportive of or related to the Liberal Party.
  • (lb) Of the higher-frequency region of the part of the electromagnetic spectrum which is relevant in the specific observation.
  • (lb) Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
  • (lb) Possessing a coat of fur that is a shade of gray.
  • (lb) Severe or overly strict in morals; gloomy.
  • literary; bluestockinged.
  • * (William Makepeace Thackeray) (1811-1863)
    • The ladies were very blue and well informed.
  • (lb) Having a color charge of blue.

    • Antonyms

    * (having blue as its colour) nonblue, unblue

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea, between green and violet in the visible spectrum, and one of the primary additive colours for transmitted light; the colour obtained by subtracting red and green from white light using magenta and cyan filters; or any colour resembling this.
  • A blue dye or pigment.
  • Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
  • Blue clothing
    • The boys in blue marched to the pipers.
  • (in the plural) A blue uniform. See blues.
  • (slang) A member of law enforcement
  • The sky, literally or figuratively.
    • The ball came out of the blue and cracked his windshield.
    ''His request for leave came out of the blue .
  • The ocean; deep waters.
  • Anything blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in color.
  • (snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of 5 points.
  • Any of the blue-winged butterflies of the subfamily in the family Lycaenidae.
  • A bluefish.
  • (Australia, colloquial) An argument.
  • * 2008 , Cheryl Jorgensen, The Taint , page 135,
    • If they had a blue between themselves, they kept it there, it never flowed out onto the streets to innocent people — like a lot of things that have been happenin? on the streets today.
  • * 2009 , John Gilfoyle, Remember Cannon Hill , page 102,
    • On another occasion, there was a blue between Henry Daniels and Merv Wilson down at the pig sale. I don?t know what it was about, it only lasted a minute or so, but they shook hands when it was over and that was the end of it.
  • * 2011 , Julietta Jameson, Me, Myself and Lord Byron , unnumbered page,
    • I was a bit disappointed. Was that it? No abuse like Lord Byron had endured? Not that I was wishing that upon myself. It was just that a blue between my parents, albeit a raging, foul, bile-spitting hate fest, was not exactly Charles Dickens.
  • A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
  • (British) A type of firecracker.
  • (archaic) A pedantic woman; a bluestocking.
  • (particle physics) One of the three color charges for quarks.

    • External links

    *

    Verb

  • (ergative) To make or become blue.
  • (metallurgy) To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
  • (slang) To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.
  • * 1974 , (GB Edwards), The Book of Ebenezer Le Page , New York 2007, p. 311:
    • They was willing to blue the lot and have nothing left when they got home except debts on the never-never.

    Derived terms

    * antiblue * between the devil and the deep blue sea * bice blue * black and blue * blue baby * blue bag * Blue Bird * blue blood * blue book * blue box * blue cat * blue catfish * blue cheese * blue chip * blue circle rate * blue cod * blue cohosh * blue crab * blue curls * blue devils * blue duck * Blue Ensign * blue flag * blue flier * blue flu * blue fox * blue funk * blue gound * blue gouse * blue gum * blue heaven * blue heeler * blue helmet * blue heron * blue jay * blue jeans * blue john * blue law * blue line * blue list * Blue Mantle * blue mold * blue Monday * blue moon * blue movie * Blue Nile * blue note * blue ointment * blue pages * blue pencil * Blue Peter * blue pike * blue plate * blue point * blue racer * blue riband * Blue Ridge * blue rinse * blue runner * blue shark * blue sheep * blue spruce * blue state * blue streak * blue vitriol * blue wall of silence * blue water * blue whale * blue wren * blueback * blueback salmon * bluebeard * bluebeat * bluebell * blueberry * bluebill * bluebird * blue-black * blue-blooded * bluebonnet * bluebottle * blue-chip * bluecoat * blue-collar * bluecurls * blue-eyed boy * blue-eyed grass * blue-eyed Mar * blue-eyed soul * bluefin * bluefin tuna * bluefish * bluegill * bluegrass * blue-green alga * blueing * blueish * bluejacket * bluely * blueness * bluenose * blue-pencil * blue-plate * bluepoint * blueprint * blue-ribbon * bluerinse * blue-rinse * blues * blueshift * blue-sky * blue-sky law * bluesman * bluestem * bluestocking * bluestone * bluesy * bluet * blue-tile fever * bluetit * bluetongue * blue-water * blueweed * bluey * bluing * bluish * bluishness * blut tit * bolt from the blue * boys in blue * Cambridge blue * cobalt blue * code blue * Colorado blue spruce * common blue * Copenhagen blue * cordon bleu * cornflower blue * cry blue murder * Danish blue * dark blue * duck-egg blue * eggshell blue * electric-blue * genetian blue * go blue * half-blue * ice blue * in a blue funk * indigo blue * iron blue * Kerry blue terrier * light blue * methylene blue * midnight blue * navy blue * Nile blue * once in a blue moon * out of the blue * Oxford blue * peacock blue * petrol blue * powder blue * Prussian blue * pygmy blue * robin's-egg blue * royal blue * Russian blue * saxe blue * Saxon blue * scream blue murder * * sky blue * slate blue * steel blue * Tasmanian blue gum * the blues * true-blue * trypan blue * until one is blue in the face * Wedgwood blue

    See also

    * * * * Havasupai * primary colour * rainbow * RGB

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----