Monochrome means made of one colour and its shades. A monochrome photograph, shoot in monochrome, a monochrome scheme.
It is not quite the same as black and white, though the two are used interchangeably: monochrome can be any single hue, so a sepia print is monochrome too. Removing colour forces attention onto shape, tone and light. The Greek means one colour.
1adjectivemonochromeMade of one colour and its shades.
“She decorated the flat in a monochrome scheme of greys, from pale silver to charcoal.”
monochrome is a quality of colour.
Greek monochromos means of one colour, from monos, one, plus chroma, colour.
Ancient Greek
μονόχρωμος
English, today
monochrome
Built from
From Ancient Greek μονόχρωμος, from μόνος (“one”) + χρῶμα (“color”); mono- + -chrome.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA