brown

CEFRA1

/ˈbɹaʊ̯n/

adjective · verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Having a color between red and black.

  2. 02

    verb

    To cook until food becomes brown on the outside.

Examples

  • Mr Brown took charge of this class last year.

  • May I talk to Ms. Brown?

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
3
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Also pronounced

  • /ˈbɹæʊ̯n/
  • /bɹuːn/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings
  1. Black tar heroin.

  2. One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of 4 points.

noun

Extra meaning
  1. A colour like that of chocolate or coffee.

More examples

In context
  • He wore brown jeans for his birthday.

  • The browns and greens in this painting give it a nice woodsy feel.

  • Leaves of various shades of brown

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After baking for an hour, the cookies turned a golden blank color.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Inherited from Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-. Doublet of bruin. Cognates * Dutch bruin * German braun * Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish brun * Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”) * Latin brunneus (“brown”) * Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”) * Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”) * West Frisian brún