The Super Bowl is built on tradition. Cracking open a beer, demolishing a plate of wings with friends, filling out Super Bowl Squares, and at this point, betting on the color of the Gatorade shower.

The lexicographer Kory Stamper’s “True Color” is a sneakily insightful philosophical treatise on what it means to define anything at all. By Deirdre Mask Deirdre Mask is the author of “The Address ...