Black. Widely seen as the colour of authority and seriousness.
Blue. In English, blue refers to any colour from navy blue to cyan. The word is taken from the Old French word bleu.
Bone. An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
Bottle. A dark to moderate greyish green colour, named after wine bottles.
Brown. A mixture of orange, red and rose. Or yellow with black.
Charcoal. The first recorded use of charcoal as a colour name in English was in 1606.
Denim. In the 1960s, denim symbolized youth culture because so many youngsters wore denim jeans.
Fawn. A dog must have a black "mask" on the mouth to be considered fawn.
Fuchsia. Once an obscure colour, it is now part of the 16-colour palette of most computer systems.
Green. There is no natural source for green food colourings which has been approved by the US FDA.
Grey. Grey is created by mixing colours directly opposite on the colour wheel.
Khaki. The British Army adopted khaki for the campaign dress in 1897.
Light Blue. Light blue is sometimes referred as Baby blue.
Maroon. The official colour of Queensland, the word Maroon is derived from French marron ("chestnut").
Mid Blue. Medium blue.
Midnight. Midnight blue is the only acceptable alternative to black as a colour for dinner jackets.
Navy. In the US Navy and the Canadian Navy, uniforms which are called navy blue are actually black.
Olive. Olive drab, Camouflage green, Military green are all widely-known shades of Olive.
Orange. Commonly seen as an unmistakable colour, Orange actually has 17 shades.
Purple. In medieval Europe, Purple was so expensive only the king or the noble could afford to wear them.
Putty. Putty belongs to the gray-green family of colour.
Red. Red represents bravery, purity, happiness, good luck, heat, energy, blood, anger, love, pain and passion.
Royal. Royal blue was invented by the millers in Rode, Somerset to make a dress for Queen Charlotte.
Sky Blue. Sky Blue is the most popular colour used in web sites.
Stone. A mix of grey and green yet again.
Taupe. The seven shades of Taupe are widely used in fashion and in interior, industrial and graphic design.
   White. In Wimbledon, players will not be allowed to compete if they do not wear white.
Yellow. John D. Hertz painted his taxis yellow after a study alleging that it is the colour most easily seen at a distance.