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Color term
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=== Basic color terms === {{further|Basic Color Terms}} Basic color terms meet the following criteria:<ref name="BerlinKay1969"/> * monolexemic ('green', but not 'light green' or 'forest green'), * high-frequency, and * agreed upon by speakers of that language. [[English language|English]] has 11 basic color terms: [[black]], [[white]], [[red]], [[green]], [[yellow]], [[blue]], [[brown]], [[Orange (colour)|orange]], [[pink]], [[purple]], and [[gray]]; other languages have between 2 and 12. All other colors are considered by most speakers of that language to be variants of these basic color terms. A useful [[litmus test (politics)|litmus test]] involves replacing each of these basic terms with an approximation of other basic terms, e.g. replacing orange with red-yellow. If the approximation is ''[[wikt:jarring#Adjective|jarring]]'', the replaced term likely meets the requirement for being a basic color term. An example of a color that comes close to being a basic color term in English is ''turquoise''. It is monolexemic, but is not very high frequency, especially compared to alternatives teal or cyan. It also generally fails the above litmus test in that most people do not find the use of the approximation of other basic color terms (blue-green) to be jarring.
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