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The Eleven Colors

Can you guess the eleven most common words for colors, based on Google's list of books published 1800–2008?
Only includes words whose primary meaning is a color, so no gold, silver, etc...
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 16, 2019
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First submittedDecember 24, 2014
Times taken182,912
Average score90.9%
Rating4.52
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Color
Black
Blue
Brown
Gray/Grey
Color
Green
Orange
Pink
Purple
Color
Red
White
Yellow
+13
Level 58
Dec 1, 2017
black gray and white are shades.
+18
Level 36
Dec 2, 2017
Only if you're an artist.
+58
Level 56
Jan 18, 2018
you must be fun at parties
+5
Level 47
Mar 13, 2018
lol
+13
Level 56
Mar 13, 2018
Don't hate Rassy for being educated
+1
Level 38
Mar 28, 2024
suggestion: replace "educated" with "wrong"
+3
Level 60
Mar 23, 2018
More like 1908...
+3
Level 89
Jun 28, 2018
Alexander Graham Bell texted and said that phone call joke got old in 1876.
+1
Level 47
Jan 31, 2024
Looks like someone doesn't know their colors.
+2
Level 42
Dec 2, 2017
lmao couldn't think of orange got it with 2 seconds left
+12
Level 44
Mar 13, 2018
I missed brown, thats kinda crappy ! LOL
+2
Level 47
Mar 13, 2018
I missed white
+2
Level 24
Mar 20, 2018
Can't believe I missed white!!!
+2
Level 45
May 27, 2018
missed pink :/
+2
Level 16
Sep 24, 2018
Paco same I forgot it
+1
Level 40
May 25, 2021
@qcumber I missed pink too lol...maybe because it's my least favorite color 0v0
+2
Level 41
Dec 2, 2017
what are the odds GREY actually isn't a reference to the colour but Christian Grey
+7
Level 43
Dec 28, 2017
No, that's just how we spell it in the UK.
+1
Level 53
Apr 14, 2021
Agreed.
+11
Level 56
Mar 13, 2018
Pretty much everyone in the world spell it "grey". We randomly changed it because...well, look up 1812 anti-English spelling changes.
+2
Level 82
Mar 15, 2018
Worldwide there are 336 million native English speakers and just under 70% of those live in the US - which I think makes US spellings the norm and the rest of the world aberrant.
+3
Level 45
May 27, 2018
no, the us just didnt like england in the 19th century. thats the only reason it isnt the same.
+4
Level 89
Jul 25, 2018
You forgot the 17th, 18th, 20th and 21st Centuries.
+2
Level 66
Dec 15, 2022
You have a point for sure, but I wouldn't say "aberrant"... tis a bit rude
+1
Level 22
Dec 2, 2017
Was singing Leon Le Chameleon as I did this ;)
+1
Level 65
Mar 13, 2018
Just thought of the Karate Belts and added Grey haha
+2
Level 71
Mar 13, 2018
I did Judo but I assume that Karate like Judo does not have Grey Belts
+2
Level 32
Mar 13, 2018
Funny how ALL the answers can be seen in the picture of this quiz! :D
+3
Level 76
Jun 19, 2020
Really? I don't see any green.
+2
Level 34
Mar 13, 2018
My old art teacher always said 'there's no such colour as black - black is just an absence of light'.
+18
Level 62
Mar 13, 2018
You should have asked her what is in the tube of black paint.

Saying black isn't a color is only true for light-generated color, like on a TV output or night blackness. This is the additive theory of color, which is really only useful in physics.

Black is definitely a color when it comes to pigments, colors, and art. Plenty of pigments and molecular structures can create black. The subtractive theory of color is mostly what you'd interact with on a daily basis.

On a side note, very few objects are true black bodies. Pretty much anything we see on earth will still reflect some light. Plus I would personally categorize black is a color because it's something we can perceive and identify. I wouldn't group it with other "not-color" parts of the UV spectrum like infrared, ultraviolet, microwave...

+2
Level 25
Mar 13, 2018
Okay... sure? So what now? Do we believe you or not?

I say 'Wibble'.

+1
Level 74
Apr 24, 2021
yes, but colour can only be perceived when light reflects off it

True black (which would be very hard to create as you say) is something that absorbs all visible light, just as true white reflects all visible light and is therefore a combination of all visible colours

+1
Level 66
Dec 15, 2022
And what color would you say a pure black object appears to be?
+3
Level 47
Mar 14, 2018
Anybody else try to sing the colors from Joseph's coat of many colors? :-)
+2
Level 59
Mar 15, 2018
I needed help from my kid.
+1
Level 31
Mar 17, 2018
Purple is NOT a colour
+3
Level 66
Aug 30, 2019
What is it then?
+5
Level 72
Nov 6, 2019

Why Not?

+1
Level 42
Apr 24, 2021
A burple
+1
Level 22
Mar 19, 2018
No cyan..? :(
+2
Level 48
Jan 26, 2019
I don't think I've ever heard or read the word cyan describing anything outside of the computer.
+1
Level 75
Nov 1, 2019
I've heard my cousin say it and I've read about it in a textbook
+2
Level 77
Jun 19, 2020
I knew someone who thought that the colour was pronounced the same as "cayenne", and didn't know why the seasoning was called by a colour that it wasn't.
+2
Level 21
Mar 19, 2018
Cyan isn't in there, yet grey is? I mean grey and gray are just gradients of white and black...
+1
Level 66
Aug 30, 2019
If white and black are allowed to be there so should gray.
+1
Level 15
Mar 22, 2018
100% 2 seconds left, BRAINFART... good for an italian!
+1
Level 37
May 11, 2018
Pink, a PRIMARY color?
+7
Level 72
Feb 27, 2020
no one said anything about primary colours
+1
Level 18
May 14, 2018
I got all of them pretty easily. A little unexpected the answers would be so obvious though. Its like they're so obvious you think it's too obvious and don't care to even check sometimes.
+1
Level 21
May 14, 2018
Brown exists... lol.
+1
Level 17
Jul 21, 2018
finished with 39 seconds
+1
Level 48
Jan 26, 2019
Finished with 39 seconds. Also my favorite color is the least guessed :(
+1
Level 19
Mar 4, 2019
Your favorite color is grey???????? sad.
+3
Level 66
Aug 30, 2019
How in the world is that sad?!? Some people are warm and colourfull themselves and don't need screaming flashing stuff. But can see the beauty in pure and simple things.

I like gray aswell, because it just needs a tiny hint of colour ( a little stripe for instance) to make that colour look amazing and much more meaningfull. Instead of a chaos of colors where one is overscreaming the other and it is one cacophony and none of the colors is really done justice.

+3
Level 66
Aug 30, 2019
It reminds me of how some kids have hundreds of (expensive) toys and still arent satisfied, and toss em away after only having played with it once. While some with only a few simple items are. Like a rock and a piece of wood, and create entire new games and worlds with it.

Think about which one is sad... (I wouldnt vote for the one that is creative and humble and thankfulll over the one that is ungratefull and wines and can't see the value of things (and with value i dont mean moneywise)

+1
Level 43
Feb 26, 2019
This is the easiest 5 points.
+1
Level 79
Nov 5, 2019
4 for me - I missed grey.
+1
Level 19
Mar 4, 2019
Colors are easy. I got this with 40 seconds remaining.
+1
Level 17
Apr 4, 2019
I missed gray......
+1
Level 20
Oct 22, 2019
Easy
+1
Level 51
Jan 29, 2020
Got all of them right!
+1
Level 51
Jul 15, 2020
in 9 seconds
+1
Level 46
Feb 8, 2020
Forgot about the obvious ones xD
+1
Level 19
Jun 15, 2020
it was easy
+1
Level 66
Jul 29, 2020
Probably the easiest featured quiz on jetpunk, even a preschooler can get 100%.
+1
Level 44
Oct 27, 2020
Soooooooooo eeeeeeeaaaaaassssyyyyyy
+1
Level 36
Nov 16, 2020
Actually, black is not a colour. Black is devoid of all light, whereas colours need light to exist.
+2
Level 79
Dec 20, 2020
Black is an achromatic colour.
+1
Level 72
Dec 20, 2020
Mauve!
+1
Level 36
Dec 20, 2020
Black and White are shades not colors. Read ^^
+1
Level 77
Dec 21, 2020
ROY G BIV?
+1
Level 34
Dec 21, 2020
"Only includes words whose primary meaning is a color, so no gold, silver, etc..."

How about golden?

+2
Level 58
Dec 21, 2020
These eleven are anthropologically the correct set. Whether they are scientifically colors is irrelevant. It is also the list of the most common color terms in a huge set of English. By anthropologically, I mean there is an order to the terms for color a society uses. Some only have three terms: black, white, and red. Some have four - and it is always the same four. And so on. Once a society has eleven basic color terms, the colors here are the ones named.
+2
Level 65
Dec 21, 2020
If this was a quiz oriented towards wanna-be poets, cerulean would be on here. Big time.
+2
Level 66
Dec 15, 2022
cerulean is beautiful. Both the color AND the word, really...
+1
Level 62
Dec 23, 2020
And here I started trying "hue, shade, tint" etc.
+1
Level 22
Jan 8, 2021
Black, white and grey are shades not colours.
+1
Level 24
Feb 20, 2021
100% with 31 seconds left...Good Quiz 💗💗
+2
Level 23
Mar 19, 2021
i did the whole rainbow... and the only 2 that weren't included are indigo and violet. (makes sense for me
+1
Level 68
Apr 24, 2021
When I used to teach ESL, we had a song for when we were teaching colors that literally listed these specific 11 colors. I started with that, and was amazed it finished the quiz. Very quick and a easy 5 pts :-)
+1
Level 20
Apr 24, 2021
Got it with 2 seconds left :D
+1
Level 67
May 19, 2021
The twelfth color: :'(
+1
Level 24
Feb 16, 2022
Got grey with 9 seconds left!
+1
Level 28
Sep 6, 2022
I was completely stuck on green and only got it with one second left :D
+1
Level 47
Sep 22, 2022
Orange? I would think it is just as commonly used for the fruit as the colour.
+1
Level 43
Oct 16, 2022
ez ;) heart if u know them (not begging for hearts btw)
+1
Level 48
Dec 15, 2022
For me the most common 18 colors are:

Red, Orange, Yellow, Lime, Green, Cyan, Blue, Navy, Purple, Lavender, Magenta, Pink, Tan, Brown, Olive, White, Gray, and Black

+3
Level 39
Dec 15, 2022
im thinking you got half of these colors from among us
+2
Level 66
Dec 15, 2022
sus
+1
Level 33
Dec 15, 2022
Forgot pink, typed in violet
+1
Level 66
Dec 15, 2022
Mobile users are at a slight advantage — they can bring up the emoji bar. 💙
+1
Level 36
May 10, 2023
on windows you know you can press start+. right? 😀
+1
Level 39
Dec 15, 2022
Technically, white is just the absence of a color while black is just the absence of light, therefore neither of them are actually colors
+2
Level 48
Dec 15, 2022
"🤓" - 🤓
+1
Level 48
Dec 15, 2022
Missed brown! Gah!
+1
Level 37
Dec 15, 2022
Aghh! How did I forget pink -_-
+2
Level 60
Dec 16, 2022
I thought the instructions said the list doesn't include colors whose primary meaning is an object. I would argue that the primary (first) meaning of orange is the fruit. Consider omitting orange or changing the wording of the instructions.
+1
Level 67
Dec 16, 2022
No teal, my favourite color.
+1
Level 68
Jan 24, 2023
Rose for pink, violet for purple?
+1
Level 67
Feb 8, 2023
17 seconds
+2
Level 60
Feb 22, 2023
It is actually a very easy quiz, no need to flex your typing abilities, take into consideration that almost half of the people who took this quiz got 100%. With a WPM of about 60 you could probably finish in 30 or so seconds, I have finished in 7 seconds but that is irrelevant.
+1
Level 36
May 10, 2023
dang got 18s
+1
Level 68
Aug 13, 2023
Not accepting violet for purple is ridiculous.
+1
Level 45
Sep 21, 2023
HOW DO I FORGET PIIIIIINK
+1
Level 56
Oct 25, 2023
Black and white are not colors lol.
+1
Level 41
Jan 3, 2024
There are more than eleven colours and black, white and grey are shades
+1
Level 41
Jan 3, 2024
Also Some More colours:

Lime

Magenta

Cyan

Scarlett

Indigo

Violet