ocher

noun \ ˈō-kər \

variants: or ochre

Updated on: 30 Mar 2018

Definition of ocher

1 : an earthy usually red or yellow and often impure iron ore used as a pigment

2 : the color of ocher; especially : the color of yellow ocher

—

ocherous

play \ˈō-k(ə-)rəs\ or ochreous play \ˈō-k(ə-)rəs, -krē-əs\ adjective

See ocher defined for kids

Recent Examples of ocher from the Web

The 2016 work, which the artist calls conceptual sculpture, renders the club complex, built as a power plant in a monumental Stalinist style, as an uncanny ocher monolith.

— j.s. marcus, WSJ, "Nightclub at the Museum: Decades of Disco Design," 16 Mar. 2018
The color rocks found at the site were manganese and ocher, perfect for making black and red, respectively.

— david grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Discovered: 300,000-Year-Old Tools and Paints That Point to Early Humanity's Cleverness," 15 Mar. 2018
Their pale, pinkish clay offsets the denser hues of emerald, siena and ocher in the paintings, and their bent and folded planes, wedges and lobes rhyme with the geometries on paper.

— leah ollman, latimes.com, "For Nathan Hayden at CB1 Gallery, the smaller the canvas, the bigger the effect," 13 Mar. 2018
The scientists traveled to a cave on the coast of Spain where Dr. Zilhão had earlier discovered shells that had been drilled with holes and painted with ocher.

— carl zimmer, New York Times, "Neanderthals, the World’s First Misunderstood Artists," 22 Feb. 2018
Guest rooms wrap around the courtyard or look onto Via Gesù; they are decorated in green, ocher, and terra-cotta with Fortuny fabrics and Frette linens.

— Condé Nast Traveler, "Four Seasons Hotel Milano," 20 Oct. 2017
Inside, archaeologists discovered many artifacts and human bones, some amid ocher deposits, as if to represent blood.

— judith h. dobrzynski, WSJ, "A Powerful Symbol of a Lost Civilization," 15 Sep. 2017
Teams from Marquette University have excavated a nearby red ocher mound containing the skeleton of a young girl, her bones smeared with the natural earth pigment.

— david hammond, chicagotribune.com, "Lost cities of the Midwest: A trek back to pre-Columbian times," 21 July 2017
WHERE ROMANS WEEKEND Monti skirts the ancient Forum, yet this effortlessly hip Roman enclave, with its ocher villas and cobblestone lanes, somehow still remains under the tourist radar.

— cnt editors, CNT, "What to Do in Rome: The Black Book," 22 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ocher.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.