pale
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pale¹
- /peɪl/ US, UK
Sounds like pail · Rhymes with -eɪl
Where it comes from
From Middle English pale, from Old French pale, from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid”), from palleō (“to be pale; to grow pale; to fade”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelito-, from *pelH- (“gray”). Doublet of pallid. Displaced native Old English blāc.
adjective paler · palest
- Light in color. I have pale yellow wallpaper.
- Having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.). His face turned pale after hearing about his mother's death.
- Feeble, faint. He is but a pale shadow of his former self.
verb pales · paling · paled
-
To turn pale; to lose colour.
But a man— / Note men !—they are but women after all, / As women are but Auroras !—there are men / Born tender, apt to pale at a trodden worm, / Who paint for pastime, in their favourite dream, / Spruce auto-vestments flowered with crocus-flames / There are, too, who believe in hell and lie : […]
Similar: blanch
- To become insignificant. (Although the conditions are rather different, the generosity of the offer certainly pales by comparison with the "Eurailpass" now available to tourists from North and South America at $125 (£44 13s.), which allows two months' unlimited first class travel throughout the railway systems of thirteen c
- To make pale; to diminish the brightness of. The Glow-worme ſhowes the Matine to be neere, / And gins to pale his vneffectuall Fire : / Adue, adue, Hamlet : remember me.
noun
- Paleness; pallor. The boare (quoth ſhe) whereat a ſuddain pale, / Like lawne being ſpred vpon the bluſhing roſe, / Vſurpes her cheeke, ſhe trembles at his tale, / And on his neck her yoaking armes ſhe throwes.
pale²
- /peɪl/ US, UK
Sounds like pail · Rhymes with -eɪl
Where it comes from
From Middle English pale, pal, borrowed from Old French pal, from Latin pālus (“stake, prop”). English inherited the word pole (or, rather Old English pāl) from a much older Proto-Germanic borrowing of the same Latin word.
Doublet of peel and pole.
noun pales
- A wooden stake; a picket. 1707, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry, London: H. Mortlock & J. Robinson, 2nd edition, 1708, Chapter 1, pp. 11-12, […] if you deſign it a Fence to keep in Deer, at every eight or ten Foot diſtance, ſet a Poſt with a Mortice in it to ſtand a little ſloping over the ſide of the Bank about tw
- A fence made from wooden stake; palisade. How are we park’d and bounded in a pale, / A little herd of England’s timorous deer, / Mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs!
- Limits, bounds (especially before of). But let my due feet never fail, / To walk the ſtudious cloyſters pale, / And love the high embowed roof, / With antic pillars maſſy proof, / And ſtoried windows richly dight, / Caſting a dim religious light.
- A vertical band down the middle of a shield. The shield was silver, charged with a red cross voided (that is, with the centre cut out and only the edges left), between in chief (that is, above the horizontal limb of the cross) two black dragon's wings, and in base two red daggers, and in the centre of the cross a black winged helmet; on a red
- The parts of Ireland under English jurisdiction.
- The territory around Calais under English control (from the 14th to 16th centuries). He knows the fortifications – crumbling – and beyond the city walls the lands of the Pale, its woods, villages and marshes, its sluices, dykes and canals.
- A portion of Russia in which Jews were permitted to live (the Pale of Settlement).
- The jurisdiction (territorial or otherwise) of an authority.
- A cheese scoop.
verb pales · paling · paled
- To enclose with pales, or as if with pales; to encircle or encompass; to fence off. […] your iſle, which ſtands / As Neptunes Parke, ribb’d, and pal’d in / With Oakes vnſkaleable, and roaring Waters, / With Sands that will not bear your Enemies Boates, / But ſuck them vp to th’ Top-maſt.
Pale³
proper noun the Pale
- The part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: thin, pallid, wan, blench, colorless, weak, blanch, picket, colourless, light, ashy, eat, faint, livid, lose, blah
Translations
Every language
adj light in color
| Español | pálido |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 창백한 changbaekhan |
| 日本語 | 青ざめた aozameta |
| 中文 | 蒼白 /苍白 cāngbái, 白皙 báixī, 白淨 /白净 báijing, 慘白 /惨白 cǎnbái |
| Português | pálido, claro |
| Français | pâle, hâve |
| Deutsch | hell, blass |
| Italiano | pallido, smorto |
| Ελληνικά | χλωμός chlomós, ωχρός ochrós |
| Română | pal, palid |
| Русский | бле́дный blédnyj |
| Tiếng Việt | tái |
| العربية | بَاهِت bāhit, شَاحِب šāḥib |
| עברית | חיוור khiver |
adj having a pallor, of human skin
| Español | pálido, payulo, puspo, nixte (nishte) |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | फीका phīkā |
| Português | pálida, branca |
| Français | pâle |
| Deutsch | blass, bleich, fahl |
| Italiano | smorto |
verb to become pale
| Español | palidecer, empalidecer |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 파리하다 parihada, 해쓱하다 haesseukhada |
| Português | empalidecer, clarear |
| Français | pâlir |
| Deutsch | blass werden, erblassen |
| Italiano | impallidire, sbiancare |
| Ελληνικά | χλωμιάζω chlomiázo, ωχριώ ochrió |
| Русский | бледне́ть blednétʹ, побледне́ть poblednétʹ |
verb to become insignicant
| Español | palidecer, empalidecer |
|---|
Talk about this word "pale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/pale. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. pale. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/pale "pale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/pale.Cite this
@misc{pale_2026,
title = {pale},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/pale},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
