Chromatic, a word ultimately derived from the Greek noun χρῶμα (''khrṓma''), which means "complexion" or "color", and then from the Greek adjective χρωματικός (''khrōmatikós''; "colored"), may refer to:
In music
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Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce the ...
, the western-tempered twelve-tone scale
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Chromatic chord
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize Scale (music), scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical styles, ...
, chords built from tones chromatically altered from the native scale of the musical composition
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Chromaticism
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic scale, diatonic pitch (music), pitches and chord (music), chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses o ...
, the use of chromatic scales, chords, and modulations
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Total chromatic, the use of all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale in tonal music
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Chromatic fantasia
A chromatic fantasia is a specific type of fantasia (or fantasy or fancy) originating in sixteenth-century Europe. In its earliest form, it is based on a chromatically descending tetrachord which arises naturally out of the dorian mode. Consequen ...
, a specific form of fantasia originating in sixteenth century Europe
*The
Chromatic button accordion
A chromatic button accordion is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard consists of rows of buttons arranged chromatically. The bass-side keyboard is usually the Stradella system or one of the various free-bass systems. In ...
*The
chromatic harmonica
The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key ...
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Chromatic genus
In the musical system of ancient Greece, genus (Greek: γένος 'genos'' pl. γένη 'genē'' Latin: ''genus'', pl. ''genera'' "type, kind") is a term used to describe certain classes of intonations of the two movable notes within a tetrach ...
, a genus of divisions of the tetrachord characterized by an upper interval of a minor third
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Diatonic and chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize Scale (music), scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical styles, ...
, as a property of several structures, genres, and other features in music, often contrasted with ''diatonic''
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Chromatics (band)
Chromatics were an American electronic music band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2001. The band's final line-up consisted of Ruth Radelet (vocals, guitar, synthesizer), Adam Miller (guitar, vocoder), Nat Walker (drums, synthesizer), and Johnny ...
, an American electronic music band
*''
Chromatica
''Chromatica'' is a studio album by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga, released on May 29, 2020, by Interscope Records and its subsidiary Streamline. Gaga supervised the production with longtime collaborator BloodPop and a variety of other pr ...
'', the sixth studio album by American singer
Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...
*"Chromatic", a song by +/- from ''
You Are Here'', 2003
In optics, vision, and color
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Colorimetry
Colorimetry is "the science and technology used to quantify and describe physically the human color perception".
It is similar to spectrophotometry, but is distinguished by its interest in reducing spectra to the physical correlates of color p ...
, the science of
color
Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...
is sometimes called ''chromatics''
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Chromaticity
Chromaticity is an objective specification of the quality of a color regardless of its luminance. Chromaticity consists of two independent parameters, often specified as '' hue'' (''h'') and ''colorfulness'' (''s''), where the latter is alte ...
, the quality of a color as determined by its "purity" and dominant wavelength
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Chromatic aberration
In optics, chromatic aberration (CA), also called chromatic distortion, color aberration, color fringing, or purple fringing, is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. It is caused by dispersion: the refractive index of the ...
, departures from perfect imaging in optics systems due to dispersion
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Chromatic dispersion
Dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency. Sometimes the term chromatic dispersion is used to refer to optics specifically, as opposed to wave propagation in general. A medium having this commo ...
, the dispersion of light due to differing refraction index for different wavelengths
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RG Chromaticity, a two-dimensional color space in which there is no color intensity information
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Chromatic adaptation
Chromatic adaptation is the human visual system’s ability to adjust to changes in illumination in order to preserve the appearance of object colors. It is responsible for the stable appearance of object colors despite the wide variation of light ...
, the ability for some organisms to perceive objects similarly in varying lighting conditions
In mathematics
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Chromatic polynomial
The chromatic polynomial is a graph polynomial studied in algebraic graph theory, a branch of mathematics. It counts the number of graph colorings as a function of the number of colors and was originally defined by George David Birkhoff to stud ...
, a polynomial which encodes the number of different ways to vertex color a graph using ''n'' colors
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Chromatic numbering
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Chromatic index
In graph theory, a proper edge coloring of a Graph (discrete mathematics), graph is an assignment of "colors" to the edges of the graph so that no two incident edges have the same color. For example, the figure to the right shows an edge colorin ...
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Acyclic chromatic number
In graph theory, an acyclic coloring is a (proper) vertex coloring in which every 2-chromatic subgraph is acyclic. The acyclic chromatic number of a graph is the fewest colors needed in any acyclic coloring of .
Acyclic coloring is often ass ...
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Strong chromatic number
In graph theory, a strong coloring, with respect to a partition of the vertices into (disjoint) subsets of equal sizes, is a (proper) vertex coloring in which every color appears exactly once in every part. A graph is strongly ''k''-colorable if ...
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Fractional chromatic number
Fractional coloring is a topic in a branch of graph theory known as fractional graph theory. It is a generalization of ordinary graph coloring. In a traditional graph coloring, each vertex in a graph is assigned some color, and adjacent vertices ...
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Vertex chromatic number
In graph theory, graph coloring is a methodic assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph. The assignment is subject to certain constraints, such as that no two adjacent elements have the same color. Graph coloring i ...
Other uses
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Von Luschan's chromatic scale
The term () is used in German surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means or .
Nobility directories like the often abbreviate the noble term to ''v.'' I ...
, a method for classifying skin color
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Chromatic dragon
In the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game, dragons are an iconic type of monstrous creature. As a group, ''D&D'' dragons are loosely based on dragons from a wide range of fictional and mythological sources. ''Dungeons & ...
in Dungeons & Dragons
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chromatic (programmer)
Chromatic is a writer and free software programmer best known for his work in the Perl programming language. He lives in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. He wrote ''Extreme Programming Pocket Guide and the lead author of Perl Hacks'' , co-wrote ...
, a Perl programmer and writer
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Chromatics Inc., a manufacturer of color graphics display systems
*chromatic, of biological material, the ability to take up
staining
Staining is a technique used to enhance contrast in samples, generally at the Microscope, microscopic level. Stains and dyes are frequently used in histology (microscopic study of biological tissue (biology), tissues), in cytology (microscopic ...
See also
In music
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Twelve tone technique
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale ...
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Serialism
In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also ...
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Equal temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament or Musical tuning#Tuning systems, tuning system that approximates Just intonation, just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into steps such that the ratio of the frequency, frequencie ...
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Sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...
In Ancient Greek and Byzantine music
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Diatonic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair ...
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Enharmonic
In music, two written notes have enharmonic equivalence if they produce the same pitch but are notated differently. Similarly, written intervals, chords, or key signatures are considered enharmonic if they represent identical pitches that ar ...
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Byzantine Music
Byzantine music () originally consisted of the songs and hymns composed for the courtly and religious ceremonial of the Byzantine Empire and continued, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, in the traditions of the sung Byzantine chant of East ...
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Maqam (disambiguation)
In optics, vision and color
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Color
Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...
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International Commission on Illumination
The International Commission on Illumination (usually abbreviated CIE for its French name Commission internationale de l'éclairage) is the international authority on light, illumination, colour, and colour spaces. It was established in 1913 a ...
, the international authority on light, illumination, colour, and colour spaces.
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