pallor

American  

[pal-er] / ˈpæl ər /

noun

• pallors
  plural

1. unusual or extreme paleness, as from fear, ill health, or death; wanness.

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pallor British  

/ ˈpælə /

noun

1. a pale condition, esp when unnatural

   fear gave his face a deathly pallor

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pallors
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of pallor

1650–60; < Latin: paleness, equivalent to pall ( ēre ) to be pale + -or -or ¹

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Explanation

When you’ve got the flu, that pale, sickly color of your skin is called a pallor. Other causes of pallor include shock, stress, or 10 days spent indoors trying to beat your new video game. Pallor comes from the Latin word pallere, which just means to “be pale.” That’s easy enough to remember, right? Pallor, pale. Don’t make yourself sick trying to memorize it, or you might get an unhealthy pallor from the strain.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pallor pallors

His last film role had been as the sinister Mystery Man, with a vampire pallor and no eyebrows, in David Lynch’s dreamlike 1997 thriller “Lost Highway.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

If you know anything about Burton’s movies, you know that they tend to feature characters who embody all the qualities of a sickly Victorian-era child: waifish, sunken doe-eye and gaunt faces with a deathlike pallor.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2024

Even miles outside the perimeter, many businesses in Maine's south opted for a self-imposed shutdown, casting an eerie pallor over the state.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2023

Here, too, the mood couldn’t have been more different from the year prior, when the slap cast a pallor on the celebration.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2023

Even from a distance, Dr. Philobosian’s medical eye noticed the cut on the young man’s hand and the pallor of malnutrition.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

The darkness of the groves which sheltered the course of the Kephisos contrasted strongly with the flying pallors and seemed at enmity with them.

From In the Wilderness by Robert Smythe Hichens

Congo gleams, college boy pallors, the smiles of black and white men and women interlace.

From A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago by Ben Hecht

She seemed the vividest thing, suddenly cleaving the pallors and uncertainties of reeds and water and flecked northern sky.

From The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim

Wherever the coy earth veils her face With tresses of forest hair; Where polar pallors her blushes efface, Or tropical blooms lend her beauty and grace— I can flutter my plumage there!

From Caxton's Book: A Collection of Essays, Poems, Tales, and Sketches. by W. H. (William Henry) Rhodes

Halfway up the hill, which rises from the river bank, and opposite the factory's plateau, appears the white geometry of the castle, and around its pallors a tapestry of reddish foliage, and parks.

From Light by Fitzwater Wray

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