pale

¹ American  

[peyl] / 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  

[peyl] / 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.  Also called 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

What really catches my eye is a pale yellow glow in the corner of the room.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Croteau looked around to see people holding their pale faces in their hands, fighting the urge to vomit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

A man who lived in the neighborhood, Sean Stanek, would recall a pale, “whacked-out” Blake pounding on his door and screaming, “You’ve gotta help me!”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

The subtropical southern Japanese region boasts some of the world's most biodiverse hubs of normally multicoloured coral, but a 2024 marine heatwave created "graveyards" of ghostly pale or sickly brown organisms.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

Its light shone pale in the dusk as she jumped down the rocks to Turtle Beach.

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr

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

“England vs. Argentina is a great sports story, but pales in comparison. Nice try, WSJ.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Released months after “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” this occasionally ill-advised foray into psychedelia pales in comparison to the Beatles’ masterpiece.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 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

Stars glitter in the western darkness, but the sky pales to gray in the east.

From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell

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

Symptoms can include jaundice, itchy skin, darker pee, paler poo, unexplained weight loss, tiredness and high temperature.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

He withholds his approval to keep the paler, smaller man anxious.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2026

Icing will turn a paler shade and thicken.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2024

For a moment, Harry thought that his inexpert Apparition had thrown Dumbledore off balance; then he saw his face, paler and damper than ever in the distant light of a streetlamp.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

“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

Forty years after my father’s interrogation I find myself following the palest of imprints of his journey, though with none of his courage, or certainty, and none of the risk.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 27, 2019

The abstract artist Sean Scully has striped his canvases in yellows from palest omelet to warning flare.

From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2019

Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town.

From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

OpenAI’s talent, funding and scientific papers paled in comparison to Google.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

But the shock of that request paled in comparison to another number.

From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026

The Quigleys fell in love with southern Georgia, but the schooling options there paled in comparison with what they found across the border in Florida.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 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

When Phil heard about the time my car seat fell out of the moving car, his face paled.

From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

That said, the approach adds texture to a film set during Carnival, the festival’s vibrancy paling in comparison to the creative exuberance on display.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 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

In the fading light, the trees along the banks were slowly losing their dimensions, flattening into silhouettes clipped from black paper and pasted to the paling sky.

From "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit