tawny
8
6.0
- adjective
- /ˈtɔːni/
:
tostado
- Her hair was a tawny tangle, and her blue jeans were patches over patches.
- tawny hair
- tawny eyes
- tawny skin
A little girl in a pink suit with tawny Corkscrew curl stands behind me.
- A little girl in a pink suit with tawny Corkscrew curl stands behind me.
Examples
-
Picture eyes the tawny color of the San Francisco Peaks in summer.
Fiction book (2001) -
Her hair was wild like a lion, back-combed into a tawny mass of jungle excitement.
Fiction book (1990) -
The ground indeed is tawny.
-
So it's this tawny pink with an absolute hint of brown.
-
The dog's tawny eyes look at me as it runs sideways in the dark.
Fiction book (1999) -
Eloy said he thought he could make out something on the tawny plain below the black mountains.
Fiction book (1995) -
The low sun pitches tawny bars through the air and all over the bleachers.
Fiction book (1992) -
We could see a long way down to the west, over tawny ridges, knobs, and shadowed canyon walls.
Fiction book (1991) -
One tendril of her tawny hair trailed a path like spilled honey down the softness of her cheek.
Fiction book (2000) -
The tawny leaves of the oak tree rustled gently in the autumn breeze.
Synonyms
939
1.0
Having a medium to dark color like wood or tanned skin
45
1.3
A light brown colour with a little grey or yellow
30
1.0
Light brown in colour like leather
13
1.0
A colour that is a little brown
6
2.3
A medium to dark tan color like brown sugar
4
6.8
A medium to dark tan color like undyed leather
1
4.2
A light brown color like tanned leather
1
4.4
A light brown color like skin after being in the sun
1
5.7
A pale yellow-brown color like light leather
1
4.2
A light yellowish brown color like a young deer
1
2.7
A brown color with a touch of orange
1
2.0
A brownish yellow color like dry autumn leaves
A warm yellowish brown color like dry grass or a lion's fur
A pale yellow-brown color like a baby deer's fur
A light yellowish-brown color like a deer's coat
A light brown color with orange tones
A medium to dark brown color like caramel
A color between brown and yellow
A dull brown and gray color like dry earth
Compounds
- Indian
A large brown eagle with pale reddish-brown feathers that lives in Africa and parts of Asia
How Brown
Surface Forms
Morphology
tawny = tawn + y
The adjective is historically formed from a tawn/tan colour base plus the productive suffix '-y', but the base form 'tawn' is not a recognizable standalone modern English word, so the relation is partly guessable but not fully transparent for learners.
Etymology
The word tawny comes from an old word meaning 'tanned', used for leather made brown with tree bark. That's why tawny now means a light brown to brownish orange color, and it is the same root as the word tan.