chromatic
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
chromatic/krəˈmatɪk/
▶adjective
- 1 Music relating to or using notes not belonging to the diatonic scale of the key of a passage.
■ (of a scale) ascending or descending by semitones.
- 2 relating to or produced by colour.
– derivatives
chromatically adverb,
chromaticism noun.
chromatically adverb,
chromaticism noun.
– origin C17: from Fr. chromatique or L. chromaticus, from Gk khrōmatikos, from khrōma, khrōmat- ‘colour, chromatic scale’.
'chromatic' also found in these Oxford entries:
