Short answer
No. Where the same naming task has been run in several places, speakers of one language turn out to use different words for the same colours and the same word for different ones. Brown is marrón in Spain and Uruguay and café in Mexico; light blue is a category of its own in Uruguay and a kind of azul elsewhere; Italian azzurro is a lighter colour in Verona than in Alghero. The lexicon records regional variation for 10 terms, and 3 pairs of words as regional counterparts. A glossary written for one country will mislabel colours in another that shares its language.
The plainest case is a category every region has under different names. When students in Spain, Mexico and Uruguay named the same brown stimuli on a screen, 97–99% of the Spanish and Uruguayan groups said marrón and 87–93% of the Mexican group said café; no Mexican student had listed marrón as a colour word and no Spanish or Uruguayan student had listed café. Purple divides differently: morado in Spain and Mexico, violeta in Uruguay, with violeta also known in the other two. The study's authors call such pairs equivalent terms for one category. For a translator they are the easy case, provided the target country is known: the colour does not change, only the label.
The harder case is a difference in how the space is divided. In Uruguay celeste is a basic term: 46 of 57 students listed it and 85–91% used it for a light-blue stimulus. In Spain and Mexico the same stimulus was azul for nearly everyone, and one student in 47 and nine in 97 listed celeste at all. Italian shows three arrangements under one written standard. In Verona azzurro covers light and medium blue beside blu. In Alghero celeste takes that range and azzurro is a darker medium blue. In Tuscany all three are used, celeste lightest. The published best examples reflect this: mean lightness for azzurro was L* 69 in Verona and 62 in Florence. Here the word and the colour both change with the region.
Chinese qīng is written with one character everywhere and means different things. On the Mainland it is a specific blue-green, taught to children as a colour of the rainbow between green and blue. In Taiwan and Hong Kong it is not taught that way and is uncommon in everyday speech; younger speakers in Taiwan matched it mainly to greens, and in a 2020 naming study in Taipei one participant in 41 used it. Brown shows a second kind of variation in Mandarin: the Taipei students all said kāfēi, the loanword for coffee, where studies of other samples had found zōng or hé. The authors present this as a feature of their sample, and it is a reminder that 'region' also means age group and date.
English has the same seams, on a smaller scale. A learner's dictionary defines khaki as a yellowish-brown or greenish-brown colour and separately records khakis, labelled mainly US, as loose cotton trousers usually of a light brown colour. The uniform sense and the retail sense point at different colours, and the web's named colour 'khaki' is a pale straw closer to the second. Spelling is the visible regional difference in English colour words, grey against gray, and it changes nothing about the colour; the khaki case is the less visible kind that does.
Treat a language as a set of markets. Keep colour identifiers neutral, a code or a value, and attach labels per locale, not per language: es-MX and es-UY need different words for brown and different facets for blue. Have labels checked by speakers from the target country and, for fashion or youth products, the target age group. Where a term's standing differs, as with celeste, prefer the description that is correct everywhere, 'azul claro', unless the local term is wanted for tone. And record where a glossary's terms were collected, so that the next person does not assume a Madrid list covers Montevideo.
| Language | Term | What differs, and where |
|---|---|---|
| Italian | azzurro | Verona: light and medium blue, the second basic blue. Alghero (Sardinia): a darker medium blue, apparently not basic, with celeste taking the lighter blues. Tuscany: medium blue, between celeste and blu. |
| Italian | celeste | Tuscany: a third basic blue, the lightest. Alghero: the second basic blue, covering light and medium shades. Verona: not basic; azzurro covers its range. |
| Mandarin Chinese | 青 (qīng) | Mainland China: a specific blue-green, taught as a rainbow colour between green and blue. Taiwan and Hong Kong: uncommon in everyday speech and not taught as a rainbow colour; younger speakers in Taiwan matched it mainly to greens. |
| Mandarin Chinese | 咖啡 (kāfēi) | The dominance of kāfēi is described by the authors as a particular feature of their Taiwan sample of students; samples elsewhere and of other ages have given zōng or hé. |
| Spanish | azul | Spain and Mexico: the whole blue range. Uruguay: the blues other than the light ones, which go to celeste. |
| Spanish | marrón | Spain and Uruguay: the basic word for brown. Mexico: no participant listed it, and 87–93% named the brown stimuli café. |
| Spanish | café | Mexico: the basic word for brown. Spain and Uruguay: not listed as a colour word by any participant. |
| Spanish | morado | Spain and Mexico: the main word for purple, with violeta also in use. Uruguay: rare; violeta is the basic term. |
| Spanish | violeta | Uruguay: the basic word for purple, used for the purple stimuli by 53–80%. Spain and Mexico: a second word beside morado, used for the same stimuli by 13–27%. |
| Spanish | celeste | Uruguay: basic, beside azul. Spain and Mexico: known but not basic; the same light blue is called azul. |
| Term | Relation | Term | What the source shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| café, Spanish | is the regional counterpart of | marrón, Spanish | Mexican Spanish café and Castilian and Uruguayan marrón name the same brown category: the same two stimuli were café for Mexican students and marrón for the others. Darker brown stimulus: café for 87–93% in Mexico; marrón for 97–99% in Spain and Uruguay. |
| violeta, Spanish | is the regional counterpart of | morado, Spanish | Uruguayan Spanish violeta and Castilian and Mexican morado are the basic words for the same purple category. Darker purple stimulus: violeta for 79–80% in Uruguay; morado for 73–82% in Spain and 60–67% in Mexico. |
| celeste, Italian | is the regional counterpart of | azzurro, Italian | For the light and medium blues, speakers in Alghero say celeste where speakers in Verona say azzurro; Tuscan speakers use both, celeste for the lighter. Mean best-example lightness: celeste L* 63.93 in Alghero and 70.26 in Florence; azzurro L* 68.80 in Verona and 61.87 in Florence. |
Why: The label was written for Spain; Mexican speakers call the colour café.
Fix: Key labels to locale (es-MX, es-ES, es-UY), and have each list checked in-country.
Why: Azzurro and celeste change places between regions.
Fix: Show the swatch beside the word, and use blu, whose meaning is stable, with a modifier where precision matters.
Why: The buyer expected the drab of the uniform and received a pale tan, or the reverse.
Fix: Add a plain description, 'light tan' or 'dull olive-brown', and a photograph against a neutral reference.
Each statement is labelled by kind — established fact, a standard’s requirement, observed market data, a convention, or Colourwise’s own interpretation or analysis — with the strength of the evidence behind it.
FactModerate evidence· Spain, Mexico and Uruguay
The same brown stimuli were named marrón by 97–99% of Castilian and Uruguayan participants and café by 87–93% of Mexican participants; marrón appeared in none of 97 Mexican lists of colour words and café in none of the Castilian or Uruguayan lists.
Caveat: University students at one university per country; 90 took part in the naming task.
FactModerate evidence· Spain, Mexico and Uruguay
A light-blue stimulus was named celeste by 85–91% of Uruguayan participants and azul by 88–100% of Castilian and Mexican participants.
Caveat: One stimulus on one calibrated screen; ranges are across the women's and men's groups.
FactModerate evidence· Verona, Alghero and Tuscany, Italy
Speakers in Verona use azzurro as the second basic blue for light and medium blue, speakers in Alghero use celeste for that range, and Tuscan speakers use both with celeste the lighter.
Caveat: Three locations with samples of a few dozen speakers each.
Source: Florence “blues” are clothed in triple basic terms (i-Perception 13(5), 2022); Diatopic variation in the referential meaning of the “Italian blues” (in Progress in Colour Studies, pp. 83–106, 2018)
FactModerate evidence
Chinese qīng refers to a specific blue-green in Mainland China, where it is taught as a rainbow colour, and is a less common term in Taiwan and Hong Kong, where it is not.
Caveat: The regional account is the authors' discussion, drawing on earlier work; their own data are from Taipei only.
FactModerate evidence
A dictionary of English defines khaki as a yellowish-brown or greenish-brown colour and labels khakis, loose cotton trousers usually of a light brown colour, as mainly US.
Caveat: The dictionary records two senses; that the garment sense has shifted the colour word in American use is Colourwise's reading.
Colourwise interpretationModerate evidence
Colour labels should be localised per country, not per language, wherever the same language is used in markets with different colour vocabularies.
Based on: Measured differences in the basic colour terms of Spanish between Spain, Mexico and Uruguay and of Italian between three regions.
Reviewed 6 October 2026. Colourwise summarises its sources in its own words and does not reproduce standards text or proprietary colour data. Spotted an error? Tell us.