How do you say the color orange in Esperanto?

Question

I'm confused about oranĝkolora vs oranĝa for many reasons.

1. oranĝkolora explicitly means orange colored but is a mouthful compared to oranĝa.
2. The color-kolora pattern doesn't explicitly appear again in the lernu dictionary.
3. I'm under the impression that oranĝa means "orange like" referring to the fruit in the rules of Esperanto, but the dictionaries I've looked at seem to imply that oranĝkolora and oranĝa have the same meaning.

I'd appreciate it if someone would clear up my confusion with this noobish translation problem I have :P. Is there only one right word for the color orange or are they both the same meaning?

Answer 1

According to PIV you can use both, they have the same meaning. But, on top of the colour, oranĝa could also mean that something is made of oranges, for example orange juice.

If you know it is about the color, and depending on the (lack of) context, I'd suggest using oranĝkolora.

Carrot juice is oranĝkolora but you would probably not risk a misunderstanding saying it is oranĝa.