Meanings
- uncountableA neutral light grey colour.
By using light gray or Gainsboro we are using Edward Tufte's principle of "minimum effective difference" to put in ancillary information.
2005 May 21, David Park, “Re: GridLines issue”, in comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica (Usenet)1 more example
When the temperature reached to^([sic]) about 40 °C, the color of characters began to change, and it changed completely from black to gainsboro when the temperature rose to about 50 °C. As the[…]film cooled down to the room temperature, the color returned to black.
2017, Guoliang Wang et al., “AgNW/Chinese Xuan paper film heaters for electro-thermochromic paper display”, in Materials Research Express, volume 4, number 11
- not comparableOf a neutral light grey colour.
Origin
A color named "gainsboro" was added to the X11 color chart by Paul Raveling in 1989. Raveling explained that he introduced a number of "light and off-white colors, copied from several Sinclair Paints color samples", of which gainsboro appears to be one.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gainsboro. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gainsboro
“gainsboro.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gainsboro. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gainsboro,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gainsboro.
Source: gainsboro on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.