CMY stands for Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, which are the primary colors used in color printing. These colors are combined in various ways to create a wide range of other colors. In the CMY color model, subtractive color mixing occurs, meaning that colors are created by subtracting varying amounts of light absorbed by the inks. In practice, when these colors are mixed together in equal parts, they produce black. However, due to imperfections in inks, a fourth color, Black, is often added in the CMYK model (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) to enhance depth and detail in printed images.