Color-tunable emission from semiconductor nanostructures holds promising applications in developing multi-color/color-tunable nano-devices. Herein, we reported the growth of In-doped CdS nanowires with various dopant concentrations via a thermal evaporation method. Optical measurement revealed the photoluminescence of these doped nanowires consists of a narrow bandedge emission and a broad trap-state emission, and the intensity ratio between them is tunable depending on excitation laser intensities and trap-state concentrations. On the basis of this variable intensity ratio, a tunable photoluminescent color from red to green was demonstrated. Our work indicates that trap-state emission from doped nanostructures might be useful for color-tunable emissions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.