faded
Americanadjective
-
having lost brightness, intensity, volume, etc., as of light, color, or sound.
She was wearing a faded polyester skirt.
-
having lost freshness, vigor, strength, or health.
Regular removal of faded flowers is often needed to keep annuals blooming.
-
having gradually disappeared or died out.
The movie’s main theme is the resuscitation of faded love.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived 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.
While the stock demonstrated notable relative strength versus energy peers in the first quarter as seen on the ratio chart against the XLE, that outperformance has since faded as momentum cooled.
From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026
Started strong, faded in qualifying but with the chaos could have ended up with points bar a penalty.
From BBC • Jun. 7, 2026
While horses near the front early faded late, the 1-2-3 finishers all trailed by at least a dozen lengths after the first half-mile.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2026
The popularity of Mr. Harris’s later novels featuring Hannibal faded: “Hannibal” was dismissed by Martin Amis as being, “on all levels, a snorting, rooting, oinking porker.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
The text is faded, and there are holes in both sleeves, but it’s the softest t-shirt I’ve ever worn.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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.
