Taupe is an example of which category of color?

• A. Primary color
• B. Secondary color
• C. Tertiary color
• D. Neutral color

Answer: (C)

Colors on the wheel are grouped by how they’re made. Taupe isn’t a pure hue, so it isn’t a primary or secondary color. A tertiary color comes from mixing a primary with a neighboring secondary and often lowering the saturation to get a muted tone. Taupe results from such mixed hues and then desaturation, giving it that brown-gray, earthy look. That combination fits the idea of a tertiary color in many color classifications. (Some contexts call it a neutral because it’s a muted earth tone, but within the scheme that labels mixed hues near brown as tertiary, taupe is treated as a tertiary color.)