Tricolour

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Tricolour

A tricolour or tricolor (three colours) is a flag

Flag

A flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or Mast , generally used symbolically for signaling or identification. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium....
or banner

Banner

A banner is a flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Banner-making is an ancient craft.The word derives from Vulgar Latin bandum, a cloth out of which a flag is made ....
more-or-less equally divided (horizontally, vertically, or, less frequently, diagonally) into three bands of differing color

Color

Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
s. The term is somewhat misleading, as many tricolours have more than three colors, as they are often charged

Charge (heraldry)

In heraldry and vexillology, a charge is an image occupying the field on an Escutcheon . Charge can also be a verb; for example, if an escutcheon bears three Lion s, then it is said to be charged with three lions. It is important to distinguish between divisions of the field and charges, and to note that charges can themselves be c...
with contrasting emblems (the flag of India

Flag of India

File:Flag of India.svgFile:Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka.jpgThe National Flag of India was adopted in its present form during an ad hoc meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on the 22 July 1947, twenty-four days before India's independence from the British on 15 August 1947....
as a prominent example).

Besides carrying an emblem, another means by which a tricolour may have more than three colours is through the use of fimbriation

Fimbriation

In heraldry and vexillology, fimbriation refers to small strips of colour placed around charge or ordinary , usually in order for them to stand out from the background, but perhaps just because the designer felt it looked better, or for a more technical reason to avoid what would otherwise be a violation of the rule of tincture....
: the separation of colours on a flag by a narrow contrasting stripe.

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Encyclopedia

A tricolour or tricolor (three colours) is a flag

Flag

Banner

Color

Charge (heraldry)

Flag of India

Fimbriation

Flag of Uzbekistan

File:Flag of Uzbekistan.svgThe flag of Uzbekistan was approved at the Seventh Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Uzbekistan, on November 18, 1991....
, Kenya

Flag of Kenya

The flag of Kenya was officially adopted on December 12, 1963....
, North Korea

Flag of North Korea

The Flag of North Korea was adopted on September 8 1948, as the flag terminology. The red star of Communism can be seen on this flag on a white disk....
, and Gambia.

One of the first tricolours and the oldest tricolour still in use today is the flag of

Flag of the Netherlands

The flag of the Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. Introduced in 1572, it is one of the first tricolours and the oldest tricolour still in use today....
the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
; one of the first vertical tricolours is the tricolore

Flag of France

The national flag of France is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue , white, and red. It is known to English language speakers as the French tricolour or simply, the tricolour....
of France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
.

Variety of triband

The tricolour is a specific type of triband

Triband (flag)

The triband is one of the most common designs of flag, and is the design of some 30% of all current national flags.As the name suggests, the main feature of the design of a triband is three parallel bands of colour....
. In a triband, the design is of three vertical, horizontal, or diagonal stripes, often formed — from an heraldic point of view — by the placement of a horizontal or vertical stripe (a pale

Pale (heraldry)

A pale is a term used in heraldry blazon and vexillology to describe a charge on a coat of arms , that takes the form of a band running vertically down the center of the shield....
or a fess

Fess

In heraldry, a fess is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally and centrally across the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be covered by the fess, ranging from one-fifth to one-third....
, respectively), over a background. The triband may thus have two stripes of the same colour split by a stripe of a second colour (examples of this include the flags of Austria

Flag of Austria

File:2003 Austria 20 Euro The Post-War Period front.jpgThe flag of Austria has three equal horizontal bands of red , white, and red.The Austrian flag is possibly the oldest national flag design in the world....
, Canada

Flag of Canada

The 'National Flag of Canada', also known as the 'Maple Leaf', and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag....
, and Spain

Flag of Spain

File:Bandera pza Colon.jpgThe flag of Spain , as it is defined in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, consists of three horizontal stripes: red, yellow and red, the yellow stripe being twice the size of each red stripe....
).

In a tricolour, the two outer stripes are of different colours. They can thus be seen as a subset of tribands.

Additional meanings

Vexillologists

Vexillology

Vexillology is the scholarly study of flags. The word is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum and the suffix -logy, meaning "study of"....
also occasionally describe flags of which the main element is three stripes as being "based on a tricolour (or triband) design". Flags such as the flag of the Bahamas

Flag of the Bahamas

The Flag of the Bahamas has an approximately 1:2 aspect ratio. The black equilateral triangle on the left represents the unity and determination of the people of the Bahamas....
and the Palestinian flag

Palestinian flag

File:Flag of Palestine.svgThe Palestinian flag was originally designed by Sharif Hussein for the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916....
fall into this category.

Some vexillologists take the meaning of the term at its barest, and simply use it to describe any flag containing just three colours, irrespective of the design. Thus, the flags of the United States

Flag of the United States

The flag of the United States consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the Flag terminology bearing fifty small, white, Star s arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows of five stars....
and the United Kingdom

Flag of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom uses as its national flag the royal banner locally known as the Union Flag or, popularly, Union Jack. The current design of the Union Flag dates from the Act of Union 1800 in 1801....
might be described as tricolours.

Tricolour

Variety of triband

Additional meanings

Examples

See also