A **tricolour** is a flag composed of three bands of equal width and contrasting tinctures. The form may be horizontal or vertical and is the dominant pattern of modern national flags. The republican French tricolore of 1794, the Dutch *Prinsenvlag* of 1572 and the Italian tricolore of 1797 are the great progenitors of the form, which has since multiplied across every continent.
**Example**: The flag of France, three vertical bands of blue, white and red, is the archetypal modern tricolour.
**See also**: [horizontal-tricolour](/glossary/horizontal-tricolour/), [vertical-tricolour](/glossary/vertical-tricolour/), [bicolour](/glossary/bicolour/), [pan-slavic-colors](/glossary/pan-slavic-colors/)