Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏳️ A three-color flag 🎨 Having three colors
tricolor

tricolor

1 4.9
A national flag with three colored stripes, like France's flag
  • noun
  • /ˈtraɪˌkʌlər/
translation icon : tricolor
  • All of the flags featured the Union Jack, while two also had the tricolor in the opposite corner.
  • Ghanaian tricolor

Examples

  • Under fluttering Libyan tricolors, attendees stood ramrod straight as the opening bars of the pre-Qaddafi national anthem blared from loudspeakers.

    Blog text (28)

  • At the airport, the tricolor flag of the faction Mokoena himself had led flew with unfounded optimism next to the Kangala emblem.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Variations of the tricolor Mexican flag frequently serve as another means of broadcasting Mexicanidad.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The bugler blows "Le Caid" as the French tricolor is hoisted up the flagpole.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • One German community in the Banat, learning of Kossuth's victory, tore down the imperial flag, raised the Hungarian tricolor, and paraded a Hungarian official around the town in triumph.

    Academic text (2016)

  • The bugler blows "Le Caid" as the French tricolor is hoisted up the flagpole.

  • Today we have adopted the tricolor as the national flag of Russia.

  • The city's main streets are draped in Russian tricolor flags and huge banners welcoming participants.

Surface Forms

tricolor singular
tricolors plural

Morphology

tricolor = color (transparent) = tri + color

The prefix 'tri-' productive meaning 'three' combined with 'color' yields the literal meaning 'three colours', which is directly accessible to B1 learners.

Etymology

Tricolor comes from the Latin parts tri- meaning 'three' and color meaning 'colour'. So a national tricolor is simply a flag made of three colours, like the French flag.