person of color

noun

plural people of color also persons of color

: a person whose skin pigmentation is other than and especially darker than what is considered characteristic of people typically defined as white (see white entry 1 sense 2a) : a person who is of a race (see race entry 1 sense 1a) other than white or who is of mixed race

People of color account for 43 percent of the active-duty military, but the top ranks are largely white and male.

—Helene Cooper

Because we are so accustomed to talking about race in terms of black and white, we often fail to recognize and contest expressions of racism that target people of color who are not black.

—Angela Y. Davis

Examples of person of color in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Released the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the short foreshadows films like Fail-Safe and Dr. Strangelove, and given the context of the civil-rights movement, resonates as a conversation between a complacent white man and a person of color who can hear dog whistles. —Jeremy Fassler, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025

While Aurora attempts to find ways to preserve women’s bodily autonomy and administer life-saving services, Apollo ponders the responsibility of being an aristocratic person of color and all the ways his identity might shake up the halls of power. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 27 Feb. 2025

On this page, the illustration includes eight students in a classroom in the 1970s: two women and one person of color. —Davon Loeb, Parents, 15 Feb. 2025

Since 2022, the league has required every team to have at least one offensive assistant coach who’s a person of color and/or a woman. —Tashan Reed, The Athletic, 13 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1778, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for person of color

• bicolor
• concolor
• discolor
• tricolor
• colour
• culler
• duller
• multicolor
• technicolor
• unicolor
• versicolor
• watercolor