Showing results for "faded"

• past tense form of fade.
• past participle of fade.

faded

American  

[fay-did] / ˈfeɪ dɪd /

adjective

1. having lost brightness, intensity, volume, etc., as of light, color, or sound.

   She was wearing a faded polyester skirt.

2. having lost freshness, vigor, strength, or health.

   Regular removal of faded flowers is often needed to keep annuals blooming.

3. having gradually disappeared or died out.

   The movie’s main theme is the resuscitation of faded love.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of fade.

Other Word Forms

• fadedness
  noun
• unfaded
  adjective
• well-faded
  adjective
• fadedly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of faded

fade ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

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

See Examples For:

faded

That’s what happened after the pandemic faded away in 2021 and 2022.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026

Previous candidates faded too quickly to provide enough evidence.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

The house was a metaphor for the coldness of a relationship that’s faded and atrophied.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

That dominance has faded in recent years, particularly after their failure to reach last year's World Cup final.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

But then I open a piece of paper I’d previously dismissed for being too old and faded, and something falls out from inside it.

From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler

Related Words

• run down
• seedy
• shabby
• tacky
• tattered
• threadbare
• worn