pale

adjective · verb · noun

Simple meaning

Having a pallor.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

payl

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpeɪl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

of human skin
Having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.).
Feeble, faint.

verb

To enclose with pales, or as if with pales; to encircle or encompass; to fence off.
intransitive
To become insignificant.
Turn pale, as if in fear
intransitive
To turn pale; to lose colour.
transitive
To make pale; to diminish the brightness of.

noun

A wooden strip forming part of a fence
A wooden stake; a picket.
by extension
Limits, bounds (especially before of).
A cheese scoop.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (of human skin) Having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.).

Used this way, pale is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: No strong connotation
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use pale

“After her long illness, her face looked quite pale.”

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Having a pallor (a light color, especially

pale yellowpale bluepale greenpale brown

Other combinations

pale facepale pinkpale skinpale eyes

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

pale alenounCompound term
An amber colored ale brewed with pale malts.
pale chrysanthemum aphidnounCompound term
Important pest of chrysanthemums.
pale coral rootnounCompound term
Plant having clumps of nearly leafless pale yellowish to greenish stems bearing similarly colored flowers with white lower lips.
pale violetnounCompound term
Leafy-stemmed violet of eastern North America having large white or creamy flowers faintly marked with purple.
pale yellownounCompound term
A variable yellow tint.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.