hue

A hue is a color or shade of color.

When we talk about colors, we often use words like "hue" to describe their specific tone. For instance, when someone says "the blue of that painting has a lovely greenish hue", they mean that it's got a slightly green-tinged tint to the blue. This is because hue refers specifically to the actual color itself, rather than how bright or dark it appears - so if something's bright red and then gets a little faded, its hue might change but its brightness won't necessarily.

If you think about it for a second, this makes sense: in art, colors are often mixed together to create different hues. When painters talk about "finding the right hue" they mean finding just the right shade of color to use in their work. If someone's describing a sunset and says it has an orange hue, they're talking about what actual color you see, not how pretty or vibrant it is.

It's worth noting that sometimes people use the word 'hue' more loosely, meaning something like "colorful" or "coloration". In this case, if something has a lot of different hues (or colors) it might be said to be colorful.