faded
Americanadjective
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having lost brightness, intensity, volume, etc., as of light, color, or sound.
She was wearing a faded polyester skirt.
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having lost freshness, vigor, strength, or health.
Regular removal of faded flowers is often needed to keep annuals blooming.
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having gradually disappeared or died out.
The movie’s main theme is the resuscitation of faded love.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of faded
Explanation
Faded things have lost the bright color they once had. Your faded jeans, once dark blue but now pale and worn, might be your favorite thing to wear. Clothes become faded after being worn and washed again and again, and in many places the landscape itself seems faded in the wintertime, all dull grays and pale browns. Strength, energy, or vitality can also become faded, like a boxer toward the end of a long match. The Old French root of faded is fader, "become weak," from fade, "weak, pale, or insipid."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The treks flourished throughout the Middle Ages, faded, then rebounded from a niche spiritual journey to a global escape hatch; in 2025, the pilgrim office handed out 530,000 certificates of completion, or compostelas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
"After the funeral, the support from other people gradually faded and life simply carried on, even though I was consumed by grief."
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
But his fortunes faded amid a dying market for syndicated TV and clashes with a distributor and partner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Most of the rosy posts made some mention of the fact that Columbia House’s operation was unethical at best, but that the customer-service runarounds, unwelcome bills and general scuzziness had all faded with time.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
But as he held me, the adrenaline faded.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
