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Showing results for "shading"
  • present participle of shade.
Synonyms

shading

American  
[shay-ding] / ˈʃeɪ dɪŋ /

noun

  • shadings
    plural
  1. a slight variation or difference of color, character, etc.

  2. the act of a person or thing that shades.

  3. the representation of the different values of color or light and dark in a painting or drawing.


shading British  
/ ˈʃeɪdɪŋ /

noun

  1. the graded areas of tone, lines, dots, etc, indicating light and dark in a painting or drawing

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of shading

First recorded in 1605–15; shade + -ing 1


Vocabulary lists containing shading

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.

See Examples For:

For Hartnett, shading in a complete picture, warts and all, is essential to making a character believable.

From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026

We come to admire Ahmad, Perlmutter and Sidhwa, but Teng provides just enough shading so that subtle cultural tensions between the men start to emerge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

In the rush for everyone to claim tech-company status, we lost a lot of good shading in many iconic logos: Warner Bros.,

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026

External shading, such as shutters, awnings or shades, can be even more effective because it stops some sunlight before it reaches the glass.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

Clean white shirt, even here, white cuffs, hat cocked forward slightly jauntily, shading his eyes.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara

By contrast, the frequently angry and bitter Saul at least has the kind of shadings that make him a worthy frenemy, and “David” could have mined more conflict from the relationship between the two.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025

But instead of those earlier films’ crime-genre shadings, Fukada now develops the more direct emotional stakes of domestic tragedy, and the sad, strange pathways that emerge from dealing with the unfathomable.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2023

Writer/director Martin McDonagh creates a world on that island, and the actors give a master class in character; particularly Farrell, who finds infinite shadings of gentle heartbreak.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2022

Another modification involved adding some shadings of good and evil among the play’s female characters.

From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2022

As I grew older, I became familiar with the Bigger Thomas conditioning and its numerous shadings no matter where I saw it in Negro life.

From "Native Son" by Richard Wright

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