While pure gold is yellow in color, colored gold can be developed into various colors. These colors are generally obtained by alloying gold with other elements in various proportions.

For example, alloys which are mixed 14 parts gold to 10 parts alloy create 14-karat gold, 18 parts gold to 6 parts alloy creates 18 karat, and so on. This is often expressed as the result of the ratio, i.e.: 14/24 equals 0.585 and 18/24 is 0.750. There are hundreds of possible alloys and mixtures, but in general the addition of silver will color gold white, and the addition of copper will color it red. A mix of around 50/50 copper and silver gives the range of yellow gold alloys the public is accustomed to seeing in the marketplace. A small amount (0.2%) of zinc can be added to harden the alloy.

The most common grades of gold, in addition to pure 24K, are 22K (92%), 18K (75%), 14K (58%) and 9K (38%).

Colored golds can be classified to three groups:

White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, usually nickel, manganese or palladium. Like yellow gold, the purity of white gold is given in karats.

Colored is a term once widely used in the United States to describe black people (i.e., persons of sub-Saharan African ancestry; members of the "Black race") and Native Americans. It should not be confused with the more recent term people of color, which attempts to describe all "non-white peoples," not just black people.

The term "colored" appeared in North America during the colonial era. A "colored" man halted a runaway carriage that was carrying President John Tyler on March 4, 1844.^{[citation needed]} In 1851 an article in the New York Times referred to the "colored population". In 1863, the War Department established the "Bureau of Colored Troops." The first 12 Census counts in the U.S. enumerated "colored" people, who totaled nine million in 1900. The Census counts of 1910–1960 enumerated "negroes."

Today it is generally no longer regarded as a politically correct term. This history term is used in the acronym NAACP. Carla Sims, communications director for the NAACP in Washington, D.C., said "The term 'colored' is not derogatory, {however, all have color}, {[the NAACP]} chose the word 'colored' because it was the most positive description commonly used at that time. It's outdated and antiquated but not offensive."

Gold Bug is a (sometimes pejorative) term used to describe investors who are very bullish on buying the commodity gold (XAU - ISO 4217). It can also be used to refer to a person who opposes or criticizes the use of fiat currency and supports a return to the use of the Gold Standard or some other currency system based on the value of gold and other hard assets. A third use is to refer to someone who considers one commodity, usually gold, "the appropriate measure of wealth, regardless of the quantity of other goods and services that it can buy".

The term was popularized in the 1896 US Presidential Election, when William McKinley supporters took to wearing gold lapel pins, gold neckties, and gold headbands in a demonstration of support for gold against the "silver menace", though the term's original use may have been in Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 story "The Gold-Bug," about a cryptographic treasure map.