gray area

Idioms  

1. Indeterminate territory, undefined position, neither here nor there. For example, There's a large gray area between what is legal and what is not. This term, which uses gray in the sense of “neither black nor white” (or halfway between the two), dates only from the mid-1900s.

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Example Sentences

Some 51% of U.S. adults place themselves alongside Wallace in this financial gray area, according to a new survey by Edward Jones and Gallup, their first on the topic.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 2, 2026

That was a huge burden on our editors, especially since it was still a gray area.

From Slate • Apr. 1, 2026

It also showed how love can reside in a gray area — how inherently flawed and beautiful the act of loving is.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

I love both because they thrive in the gray area of appetite: nothing too hot, nothing too cold, nothing that makes me recoil from a bite.

From Salon • Jan. 29, 2026

The city would be the hot zone, and the floating ship would be the gray area, the place of refuge for the doctors.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston