pale

¹ American  

[payl] / peɪl /

adjective

• paler,
  comparative
• palest
  superlative

1. (of a person or a person's skin)

   1. light-colored or lacking in color.

      a pale complexion; his pale face; a pale child.

   2. lacking the usual intensity of color due to fear, illness, stress, etc..

      She looked pale and unwell when we visited her in the nursing home.

   Antonyms:

   ruddy

2. of a low degree of chroma, saturation, or purity; approaching white or gray.

   pale yellow.

3. not bright or brilliant; dim.

   the pale moon.

4. faint or feeble; lacking vigor.

   a pale protest.

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verb (used without object)

paled, paling

1. to become pale.

   to pale at the sight of blood.

   Synonyms:

   fade, whiten, blench, blanch

   Antonyms:

   deepen

2. to seem less important, remarkable, etc., especially when compared with something else.

   Platinum is so rare that even gold pales in comparison.

verb (used with object)

1. to make pale.

pale ² American  

[payl] / peɪl /

noun

• pales
  plural

1. a stake or picket, as of a fence.

2. an enclosing or confining barrier; enclosure.

3. an enclosed area.

4. limits; bounds.

   outside the pale of his jurisdiction.

5. a district or region within designated bounds.

6. (initial capital letter)

   1. Also called Irish Pale, English Pale. a district in eastern Ireland included in the Angevin Empire of King Henry II and his successors.

   2. Also called Pale of Settlement. the territories in the Russian Empire in which Jews were allowed to live.

7. Heraldry. an ordinary in the form of a broad vertical stripe at the center of an escutcheon.

8. Shipbuilding. a shore used inside to support the deck beams of a hull under construction.

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verb (used with object)

paled, paling

1. to enclose with pales; fence.

2. to encircle or encompass.

idioms

1. beyond the pale, beyond the limits of proper behavior, courtesy, protection, safety, etc..

   Their public comments are certainly beyond the pale.

pale ¹ British  

/ peɪl /

adjective

1. lacking brightness of colour; whitish

   pale morning light

2. (of a colour) whitish; produced by a relatively small quantity of colouring agent

3. dim or wan

   the pale stars

4. feeble

   a pale effort

5. a euphemism for White

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verb

1. to make or become pale or paler; blanch

2. to lose superiority or importance (in comparison to)

   her beauty paled before that of her hostess

pale ² British  

/ peɪl /

noun

1. a wooden post or strip used as an upright member in a fence

2. an enclosing barrier, esp a fence made of pales

3. an area enclosed by a pale

4. a sphere of activity within which certain restrictions are applied

5. heraldry an ordinary consisting of a vertical stripe, usually in the centre of a shield

6. outside the limits of social convention

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verb

1. (tr) to enclose with pales

pale More Idioms  

1. see beyond the pale.

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Synonym Usage

Pale, pallid, wan imply an absence of color, especially from the human countenance. Pale implies a faintness or absence of color, which may be natural when applied to things, the pale blue of a violet, but when used to refer to the human face usually means an unnatural and often temporary absence of color, as arising from sickness or sudden emotion: pale cheeks. Pallid , limited mainly to the human countenance, implies an excessive paleness induced by intense emotion, disease, or death: the pallid lips of the dying man. Wan implies a sickly paleness, as after a long illness: wan and thin; the suggestion of weakness may be more prominent than that of lack of color: a wan smile.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• paleness
  noun
• palely
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pales
  plural

Adjectives

• paler
  comparative
• palest
  superlative

Etymology

Origin of pale¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin pallidus pallid

Origin of pale²

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English pal(e), paele, from Old French pal, pel “stake,” from Latin pālus “wooden pole, wooden peg, stake”; see origin at peel ³; see also pole ¹ ( def. )

Explanation

After a long summer in the pool and the bright sun, your favorite rainbow-colored beach swimsuit will probably end up pale and faded. Pale means "having little color." When something's light colored, you can describe it as pale, like a pale light shining in the kitchen at night, or a person's pale face when they're suffering from the flu. Pale is also a verb that means "to become pale," so you could say that you saw your friend's face pale at the news that her favorite bakery had gone out of business. Don't make the mistake of confusing pale with its homophone, pail, which means "bucket."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pale pales paler palest paled paling

Their luminous, pale surfaces are covered in geometric markings that could be a lost version of cuneiform, and the objects’ irregular edges bring to mind a puzzle long ago disassembled and dispersed to far-flung locales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Venus looks pale yellow in ordinary visible light, but the view changes dramatically in ultraviolet wavelengths.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026

In the news release, Schroeder likened the insects’ coloring — pale yellow with red accents — to Swift’s “iconic” blonde hair and red lips.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

We ate thick slices with cold salted butter — not so much smeared across the crumb as laid on in pale slabs, because patience has never been a prerequisite for breakfast.

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026

Torak watched it snuff the air and fluff out its pale rump fur in alarm.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

Their number pales in comparison to that of farm-raised oysters on the Damariscotta, which remain the main draw.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

Even with Wednesday's jump, growth in the company's share price has trailed other chip companies in recent months and pales in comparison to the stratospheric leaps in 2023 that followed the launch of ChatGPT.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

The $300 dividend, I hope, pales in comparison, even though you were obviously confused and disappointed to miss out on the dividend.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

Matthew Murphy, representing Stewart Jones, said his client had showed "genuine, wholehearted remorse" but his financial gain "pales in comparison".

From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026

And even that pales in comparison with Rue’s life.

From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins

In general, leopards living in open habitats tend to be larger and paler, while those in forested areas are often smaller and darker.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026

By then, Thyri, paler than usual, couldn’t crawl or stand up on her own, James said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2024

Icing will turn a paler shade and thicken.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2024

Interviewed this week at the Manhattan offices of his longtime publisher, Random House, he is thinner, paler, scarred and blind in his right eye.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2024

Her face was still pale, but it had been paler at other moments since the two had been in Sickler’s.

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger

“It was important to figure out where those bright pinks would live alongside our palest, pastel pink and, of course, every tone of pink in between,” Gerwig says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2024

These cookies bake to a beautiful toasty color and are topped with an artful smear of the palest pastel icing that is lightning-fast to whip up.

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2022

The world seems to have embraced the notion that rosé is meant to wear only the palest shade of pink.

From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2021

“The reason I’m calling it a ‘complex cream’ is because there are more pigments in the palest of beiges rather than just a cream, like Sherwin-Williams’s Dover White.”

From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2020

Gilderoy Lockhart, wearing robes of palest mauve today, came striding out.

From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling

But it paled next to the annualized return of 13% on the S&P 500, the index to which her annuity was linked.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

Yet such numbers paled in comparison to the billions of dollars that OpenAI’s Altman and Anthropic were bringing in.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Microsoft Azure’s 39% cloud growth in the fourth quarter paled in comparison to Google Cloud’s 48% growth, and investors were displeased by Microsoft’s decision to allocate more computing power to internal projects.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026

But the harm caused by those excesses, Jacoby said, paled in comparison to the good that had been done by opening up the legal system to everyday people.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2026

As a result, their attainments in astronomical theory seem to have paled in comparison to their achievements in engineering, medicine, and statecraft.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

Even Marvel has recently seen lower box office results for its films — despite critical praise, “Thunderbolts*” grossed about $382 million worldwide on a budget of $180 million, paling in comparison to past films.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2025

What, you might ask, prompted this remark from the paling former personality?

From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2023

But each of those fines was for just $6,949, paling in comparison to what Metcalf received for the incident with Baynes, and speaking to how the NFL views any verbal offenses directed at officials.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2022

Free agency is in its infancy in MLS, paling in the impact and intrigue that grips the NBA, NFL and MLB.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2019

Piggy bumped into him and a twin grabbed him as he made tor the oblong of paling stars.

From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding