pale

¹ American  

[peyl] / peɪl /

adjective

• paler,
  comparative
• palest
  superlative

1. (of a person or a person's skin)

   1. light-colored or lacking in color.

      a pale complexion; his pale face; a pale child.

   2. lacking the usual intensity of color due to fear, illness, stress, etc..

      She looked pale and unwell when we visited her in the nursing home.

   Antonyms:

   ruddy

2. of a low degree of chroma, saturation, or purity; approaching white or gray.

   pale yellow.

3. not bright or brilliant; dim.

   the pale moon.

4. faint or feeble; lacking vigor.

   a pale protest.

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verb (used without object)

paled, paling

1. to become pale.

   to pale at the sight of blood.

   Synonyms:

   fade, whiten, blench, blanch

   Antonyms:

   deepen

2. to seem less important, remarkable, etc., especially when compared with something else.

   Platinum is so rare that even gold pales in comparison.

verb (used with object)

1. to make pale.

pale ² American  

[peyl] / peɪl /

noun

• pales
  plural

1. a stake or picket, as of a fence.

2. an enclosing or confining barrier; enclosure.

3. an enclosed area.

4. limits; bounds.

   outside the pale of his jurisdiction.

5. a district or region within designated bounds.

6. (initial capital letter)

   1. Also called Irish Pale.  Also called English Pale.  a district in eastern Ireland included in the Angevin Empire of King Henry II and his successors.

   2. Also called Pale of Settlement.  the territories in the Russian Empire in which Jews were allowed to live.

7. Heraldry. an ordinary in the form of a broad vertical stripe at the center of an escutcheon.

8. Shipbuilding. a shore used inside to support the deck beams of a hull under construction.

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verb (used with object)

paled, paling

1. to enclose with pales; fence.

2. to encircle or encompass.

idioms

1. beyond the pale, beyond the limits of proper behavior, courtesy, protection, safety, etc..

   Their public comments are certainly beyond the pale.

pale ¹ British  

/ peɪl /

adjective

1. lacking brightness of colour; whitish

   pale morning light

2. (of a colour) whitish; produced by a relatively small quantity of colouring agent

3. dim or wan

   the pale stars

4. feeble

   a pale effort

5. a euphemism for White

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verb

1. to make or become pale or paler; blanch

2. to lose superiority or importance (in comparison to)

   her beauty paled before that of her hostess

pale ² British  

/ peɪl /

noun

1. a wooden post or strip used as an upright member in a fence

2. an enclosing barrier, esp a fence made of pales

3. an area enclosed by a pale

4. a sphere of activity within which certain restrictions are applied

5. heraldry an ordinary consisting of a vertical stripe, usually in the centre of a shield

6. outside the limits of social convention

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verb

1. (tr) to enclose with pales

pale More Idioms  

1. see beyond the pale.

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Synonym Usage

Pale, pallid, wan imply an absence of color, especially from the human countenance. Pale implies a faintness or absence of color, which may be natural when applied to things, the pale blue of a violet, but when used to refer to the human face usually means an unnatural and often temporary absence of color, as arising from sickness or sudden emotion: pale cheeks. Pallid , limited mainly to the human countenance, implies an excessive paleness induced by intense emotion, disease, or death: the pallid lips of the dying man. Wan implies a sickly paleness, as after a long illness: wan and thin; the suggestion of weakness may be more prominent than that of lack of color: a wan smile.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• paleness
  noun
• palely
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pales
  plural

Adjectives

• paler
  comparative
• palest
  superlative

Etymology

Origin of pale¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin pallidus pallid

Origin of pale²

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English pal(e), paele, from Old French pal, pel “stake,” from Latin pālus “wooden pole, wooden peg, stake”; see origin at peel ³; see also pole ¹ ( def. )

Explanation

After a long summer in the pool and the bright sun, your favorite rainbow-colored beach swimsuit will probably end up pale and faded. Pale means "having little color." When something's light colored, you can describe it as pale, like a pale light shining in the kitchen at night, or a person's pale face when they're suffering from the flu. Pale is also a verb that means "to become pale," so you could say that you saw your friend's face pale at the news that her favorite bakery had gone out of business. Don't make the mistake of confusing pale with its homophone, pail, which means "bucket."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pale pales paler palest paled paling

A man who lived in the neighborhood, Sean Stanek, would recall a pale, “whacked-out” Blake pounding on his door and screaming, “You’ve gotta help me!”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

There are opulent chairs, upholstered in pale yellow; a black and white print of a trawler that nods to Hull's fishing heritage.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

The subtropical southern Japanese region boasts some of the world's most biodiverse hubs of normally multicoloured coral, but a 2024 marine heatwave created "graveyards" of ghostly pale or sickly brown organisms.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

On my recent rereading of “The Secret Garden,” I was delighted by the moment when Mary, initially pale and peevish and uninterested in her breakfast, begins wandering the grounds with a jump rope in hand.

From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026

Her face was pale under the skin that the cold had blackened.

From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell

But this strategy pales in comparison to what’s possible with the newest legislation.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026

Worldwide, the number of equine clones born a year pales in comparison to traditionally-bred horses, but those clones—and their offspring—are starting to emerge in the top echelons of different equestrian disciplines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026

Matthew Murphy, representing Stewart Jones, said his client had showed "genuine, wholehearted remorse" but his financial gain "pales in comparison".

From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026

And yet, all that pales in comparison to what he has been forced to endure while his mother, Janet, twice battled cancer, affecting everyone emotionally and financially.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026

AIDS, as tragic as it is, pales in worldwide comparison to the more prosaic malaria, among other diseases.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

The pod-like leaf called a spathe is slightly rounder and paler than the darker, flatter blades of seagrass.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

He withholds his approval to keep the paler, smaller man anxious.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2026

Icing will turn a paler shade and thicken.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2024

Interviewed this week at the Manhattan offices of his longtime publisher, Random House, he is thinner, paler, scarred and blind in his right eye.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2024

Her face turned even paler than marble and her eyes were stretched so wide I could see the whites all around them.

From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl

And what is most remembered about a performance to Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings” is “the transcendent scene of 17 women onstage, swathed in the palest and pearliest of blues.”

From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2024

“It was important to figure out where those bright pinks would live alongside our palest, pastel pink and, of course, every tone of pink in between,” Gerwig says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2024

These cookies bake to a beautiful toasty color and are topped with an artful smear of the palest pastel icing that is lightning-fast to whip up.

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2022

“The reason I’m calling it a ‘complex cream’ is because there are more pigments in the palest of beiges rather than just a cream, like Sherwin-Williams’s Dover White.”

From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2020

She ordered tea, and three pieces of toast and margarine, and strawberry jam of palest pink.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

OpenAI’s talent, funding and scientific papers paled in comparison to Google.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

The Quigleys fell in love with southern Georgia, but the schooling options there paled in comparison with what they found across the border in Florida.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

Microsoft Azure’s 39% cloud growth in the fourth quarter paled in comparison to Google Cloud’s 48% growth, and investors were displeased by Microsoft’s decision to allocate more computing power to internal projects.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026

But those paled in comparison to the outcry that erupted when some curlers — Canadian curlers — were accused of bending the rules.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026

He could hear her breathing rapidly and her face was paled out and her eyes were fastened wide.

From "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

That said, the approach adds texture to a film set during Carnival, the festival’s vibrancy paling in comparison to the creative exuberance on display.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025

What, you might ask, prompted this remark from the paling former personality?

From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2023

But each of those fines was for just $6,949, paling in comparison to what Metcalf received for the incident with Baynes, and speaking to how the NFL views any verbal offenses directed at officials.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2022

Free agency is in its infancy in MLS, paling in the impact and intrigue that grips the NBA, NFL and MLB.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2019

In the fading light, the trees along the banks were slowly losing their dimensions, flattening into silhouettes clipped from black paper and pasted to the paling sky.

From "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit