rainbow

Meanings

Noun

• A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.
• Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.
• A wide assortment; a varied multitude.
• An illusion, mirage.
• A curveball, particularly a slow one.
• In Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, a flop that contains three different suits.
• Rainbow trout.

Adjective

• Multicolored.
• Made up of several races or ethnicities, or (more broadly) of several cultural or ideological factions.
• LGBT.
• Composed entirely of different suits.

Verb

• To brighten with, or as with, a rainbow; to pattern with the colours of the rainbow.
• To take the appearance of a rainbow.
• In climbing gyms where the rocks to climb are colored to indicate suggested climbing routes, to climb rocks of different colors, thereby ignoring such routes.

Related

Similar words

• spectrum
• multiethnic, multiracial, rainbowed
• multipartisan

Narrower meaning words

• lunar rainbow
• marine rainbow

Origin

• From Middle English reinbowe, reinboȝe, from Old English reġnboga, from Proto-West Germanic *regnabogō, from Proto-Germanic *regnabugô, equivalent to . Cognate with West Frisian reinbôge, Dutch regenboog, German Regenbogen, Danish regnbue, Swedish regnbåge, Icelandic regnbogi.