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A tricolour is a flag or banner having three colours, usually in approximately equal size (horizontally or vertically) and lacking additional symbols. 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 Tricolour of France.

Contents 1 Variety of triband 2 Confusion and profusion of meanings 3 See also 4 External links

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 bar 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, hence the name ("tri-colour" = three colours). Tricolours can thus be seen as a subset of tribands.

Many tricolours and tribands have additional emblems in colours that are not necessarily those of the stripes. They are still, however, usually regarded by vexillologists as tricolours.

Some vexillologists go further still, and describe flags containing three fimbriated stripes as fimbriated tricolours. In this design, three broad stripes might be separated by two very thin stripes immediately above and below the central stripe. Flags of this type include the flags of Uzbekistan, Kenya, North Korea and Gambia.

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 flag of Palestine fall into this category.

Finally, 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.

• 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

• The National Flag of France The French tricolore and its influence on other tricolour national and republican flags.