tricolor

French tricolour flag

Indian tricolour flag

A tricolour ("three colours") is a flag or banner more-or-less equally divided (horizontally, vertically, or, less frequently, diagonally) into three bands of differing colours. The term is somewhat misleading, as many tricolours have more than three colours, as they are often charged with contrasting emblems (the flag of India 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: the separation of colours on a flag by a narrow contrasting stripe. In a fimbriated tricolour, the three broad bands are separated by two thin stripes on either side of the central band. Flags of this type include the flags of Uzbekistan, Kenya, North Korea, and Gambia.

One of the first tricolours and the oldest tricolour still in use today is the flag of the Netherlands; one of the first vertical tricolours is the tricolore of France.

Variety of triband

The tricolour is a specific type of triband. 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 or a fess, 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, Canada, and Spain).

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

Additional meanings

Vexillologists 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 and the Palestinian flag 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 and the United Kingdom might be described as tricolours.

Examples

Flag of Serbia (charged horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Iran (charged horizontal tricolour)	Flag of India (charged horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Venezuela (charged horizontal tricolour)
Flag of Uzbekistan (charged fimbriated horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Kenya (charged fimbriated horizontal tricolour)	Flag of North Korea (charged fimbriated horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Bulgaria (horizontal tricolour)
Flag of Colombia (horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Estonia (horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Germany (horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Hungary (horizontal tricolour)
Flag of Lithuania (horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Luxembourg (horizontal tricolour)	Flag of the Netherlands (horizontal tricolour)	Flag of Russia (horizontal tricolour)
Flag of Belgium (vertical tricolour)	Flag of Chad (vertical tricolour)	Flag of Côte d'Ivoire (vertical tricolour)	Flag of France (vertical tricolour)
Flag of Ireland (vertical tricolour)	Flag of Italy (vertical tricolour)	Flag of Romania (vertical tricolour)	Flag of the Bahamas (based on a tricolour design)
Palestinian flag (based on a tricolour design)	Flag of Jamaica (a three-colour flag)	Flag of the United Kingdom (a three-colour flag)	Flag of the United States (a three-colour flag)

See also

• List of flags with three colours
• Triband (flag)
• Pan-Slavic colors
• Pan-Arab colors
• Pan-African colors
• National flags inspired by the flag of Turkey
• Gallery of triband flags

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