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colorful mural

colorful mural

1 3.2
A large painted picture on a wall with many bright colors
  • noun
  • /ˈkʌlərfəl ˈmjʊrəl/
  • US
translation icon : mural colorido
  • Children laughed and pointed at the colorful mural of a dragon painted on the school wall.
  • paint a colorful mural
  • adorn with colorful murals
  • depict colorful murals

Examples

  • A group of artists, along with the general public, paint the buildings of Spain with colorful murals.

    Blog text (26)
  • But there's also a colorful mural of women's faces across from where we sit.

    Academic text (1997)
  • The colorful mural brightens up the dull wall of the community center.

  • As we walked through the city, we admired the colorful mural depicting local culture.

Synonyms

mural
vscolorful mural
99 3.5

A painting made directly on a wall or ceiling

is specifically a painted picture emphasizing many bright or varied colors
wall painting
vscolorful mural
3 2.7

A picture made directly on a wall as decoration

is painted on a surface and uses many bright varied colors
wall mural
vscolorful mural
1 3.2

A large picture painted or printed directly on a wall to decorate it

is painted and focuses on bright varied colors rather than printed images
photo mural
vscolorful mural
5.4

A large picture printed on wallpaper and put on a wall to decorate a room

is created by painting and highlights many bright or varied colors

Antonyms

50 2.5

Not attractive to look at

23 4.2

Not bright or colorful and not lively

How Colorful

colorful mural
  • US
1 3.2
monochrome
4 6.3

Surface Forms

Morphology

colorful + mural

The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining the adjective 'colorful' (marked by many strong colors) with the noun 'mural' (a painting on a wall); a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer a large wall painting with many colors. This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition following common cross-linguistic patterns, so no prior exposure is required.

Etymology

Colorful mural grew from the simple image of a big picture painted on a wall: mural means a wall painting and colorful means it uses many bright colors to stand out. Because these bright wall pictures were used to tell stories to the whole community, colorful mural now means 'a large painted picture on a wall featuring many bright or varied colors'.