farbige

Farbige is the attributive form of the German adjective farbig, meaning colored or multicolored. The term describes objects that display color or several colors and is commonly used in descriptions of art, design, textiles, photography, and everyday objects. It is often contrasted with einfarbig (single-color) or unifarbig, as well as with bunt (brightly colored) when a more vivid nuance is desired.

In practice, farbig appears before a noun with various endings depending on gender, number, and case. Examples include: Das farbige T-Shirt, Die farbige Blume, Das farbige Hemd, and Die farbigen Blumen. In predicative constructions after verbs like sein, the adjective remains in the base form: Das Bild ist farbig. The form das farbige Muster also shows the neuter singular usage, while feminine singular and plural forms are shown in the other examples.

Usage notes and variants: farbig is a neutral, descriptive term suitable for describing visual materials and objects. For more specific or nuanced color descriptions, terms such as mehrfarbig (multicolored) or farbenprächtig (colorful in a striking sense) may be used. Its opposite, einfarbig, describes a single color.

Etymology: farbig derives from Farbe (color) plus the suffix -ig, common in German forming adjectives from nouns.

See also: Farbe, Farbstoff, Farbpalette, Mehrfarbig, Einfarbig.