pallor

American  

[pal-er] / ˈpæl ər /

noun

• pallors
  plural

1. unusual or extreme paleness, as from fear, ill health, or death; wanness.

---

pallor British  

/ ˈpælə /

noun

1. a pale condition, esp when unnatural

   fear gave his face a deathly pallor

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pallors
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of pallor

1650–60; < Latin: paleness, equivalent to pall ( ēre ) to be pale + -or -or ¹

---

Explanation

When you’ve got the flu, that pale, sickly color of your skin is called a pallor. Other causes of pallor include shock, stress, or 10 days spent indoors trying to beat your new video game. Pallor comes from the Latin word pallere, which just means to “be pale.” That’s easy enough to remember, right? Pallor, pale. Don’t make yourself sick trying to memorize it, or you might get an unhealthy pallor from the strain.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pallor pallors

If you know anything about Burton’s movies, you know that they tend to feature characters who embody all the qualities of a sickly Victorian-era child: waifish, sunken doe-eye and gaunt faces with a deathlike pallor.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2024

“Remedio had the opportunity to watch and see, would the pallor disappear? Could the course reverse?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2024

A key problem is the lighting - a single overhead source, which gives the images a slightly garish sheen and each person's skin an unhealthy pallor.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2023

Here, too, the mood couldn’t have been more different from the year prior, when the slap cast a pallor on the celebration.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2023

I remember noticing her yellow pallor and the way her pills stuck in her throat.

From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson

Halfway up the hill, which rises from the river bank, and opposite the factory's plateau, appears the white geometry of the castle, and around its pallors a tapestry of reddish foliage, and parks.

From Light by Fitzwater Wray

Life has the same pallors and glooms; we are weary of ourselves and of others, we have the sensation of defeat upon defeat, of hopeless struggles, of mortal languors that no faith can lift.

From A Daughter of Fife by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

The paper words seem to bedeck with blossom these shores of pestilence, this Valley of Death, with their countless pallors of barren lies.

From Under Fire: the story of a squad by Fitzwater Wray

Congo gleams, college boy pallors, the smiles of black and white men and women interlace.

From A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago by Ben Hecht

She seemed the vividest thing, suddenly cleaving the pallors and uncertainties of reeds and water and flecked northern sky.

From The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---