vale
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of vale
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French val, from Latin vallem, accusative of vallis, vallēs “valley”
Explanation
A vale is a long depression in the land, usually between two hills and containing a river. A vale is a valley. If you've ever gone to a place where there are mountains, you've seen plenty of mountain ranges, mountaintops, and valleys. Valleys are the low points between hills, and they are also known as vales. A vale often contains a river, because it's the lowest point and therefore somewhere water can settle and flow. If you climb a mountain, you'll see many vales, which are often long and winding. The hills and vales of an area are usually gorgeous and breathtaking.
Vocabulary lists containing vale
The Fellowship of the Ring
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 2
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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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:
"Though I walk through death's dark vale, yet will I fear none ill."
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2022
“The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the vale to continue the fight,” the group said in a statement on Twitter.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 6, 2021
And why should the Emerald Isle, so betrayed, not have become this vale of tears?
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 22, 2018
“Playing chess is a vale of tears,” he said during one of our training sessions as we examined an especially egregious, error-riddled game I had played.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 14, 2016
She’d sat among sword ferns six feet tall or on a shelf above a vale of trilliums and opened her eyes to the place.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
Daphne du Maurier set the opening scene of her novel The Glass-Blowers on the terrace of the house, and it is still there much as it was, hidden amid the wooded vales and pastures.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2022
Centuries of small-scale farming have resulted in it being carved up into tiny plots separated by hills, rocky outcrops and vales.
From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 2019
I’ve enjoyed the recent rains and the way they green the vales and rinse clean our precious strip malls, a point of pride for so many L.A. residents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2019
Meanwhile, those huge rainfalls on exposed black dirt wash it to the vales even from the flat ground of our neighborhood.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 19, 2018
Her husband is with Sonia, listening to their youngest recite poetry in that beautiful lilting voice of hers: "I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o'er vales and hills..."
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
