By combining the data of the Two Micron All Sky Survey, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer and the AKARI satellite, we study the infrared colour properties of a sample of 2712 nearby radio-luminous galaxies (RLGs). These RLGs are divided into radio-loud (RL) active galactic nuclei (AGNs), mainly occurring at redshifts of 0.05<z<0.3 and star-forming-dominated RLGs (SFGs), mainly occurring at redshifts of 0.01<z<0.15. RL AGNs and SFGs are separately distributed in the ([3.4]-[4.6])-([4.6]-[12]) two-colour diagram, in which the RL AGNs display a double-core distribution, and the SFGs display a single-core distribution. SFGs have a redder [4.6]-[12] colour than RL AGNs due to the significant contribution from the dust component of SFGs. We find simple criteria of mid-infrared (MIR) colour separation between RL AGNs and SFGs such that: 95 per cent of RL AGNs have [4.6]-[12]3.0. We also analyse the MIR colours of RL AGNs divided into low- and high-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs and HERGs, respectively). The ([3.4]-[4.6])-([4.6]-[12]) diagram clearly shows separate distributions of LERGs and HERGs and a region of overlap, which suggests that LERGs and HERGs have different MIR properties. LERGs are responsible for the double-core distribution of RL AGNs on the ([3.4]-[4.6])-([4.6]-[12]) diagram. In addition, we also suggest 90-140{mu}m band spectral index {alpha}(90, 140)<-1.4 as a criterion of selecting nearby active galaxies with non-thermal emissions at far-infrared wavelengths.

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