Meanings
comparative pallider · superlative pallidest
- Appearing weak, pale, or wan.
The patient left the hospital but was very pallid.
2 more examples
A Sephardic romance, composed before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, fills the Lost Chord Music Store on the northwest corner of Spinoza Square and Sixth Avenue. The well-dressed man on the telephone, pallid for this tanned city, repeats the inquiry: “Cloud Atlas Sextet . . . Robert Frobisher . . . As a matter of fact I have heard of it, though I’ve never laid my sticky paws on an actual pressing.”
2004, David Mitchell, “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery”, in Cloud Atlas, →ISBN, page 119For quotations using this term, see Citations:pallid.
Synonyms: ashen, pale, pasty, ghastly, ashen, ashen-faced, ashy, blake
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveAppearing weak, pale, or wan.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveabnormally deficient in color as suggesting physical or emotional distress
adjectivelacking in vitality or interest or effectiveness
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinpalleō
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
- Latinpallidus
- Englishpallid
From Latin pallidus. Doublet of pale.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian блед, пребледнял
- блед (bled)appearing weak, pale, or wan
- пребледнял (preblednjal)appearing weak, pale, or wan
Catalan pàl·lid
- pàl·lidappearing weak, pale, or wan
Chinese Mandarin 蒼白 /苍白
- 蒼白 /苍白 (cāngbái)appearing weak, pale, or wan
Czech sinalý, bledý
- sinalýappearing weak, pale, or wan
- bledýappearing weak, pale, or wan
Danish bleg
- blegappearing weak, pale, or wan
Dutch bleek
- bleekappearing weak, pale, or wan
Esperanto pala
- palaappearing weak, pale, or wan
Finnish kalpea
- kalpeaappearing weak, pale, or wan
French pâle, blafard
- pâleappearing weak, pale, or wan
- blafardappearing weak, pale, or wan
German fahl, bleich
- fahlappearing weak, pale, or wan
- bleichappearing weak, pale, or wan
- blassappearing weak, pale, or wan
Greek πελιδνός, κατάχλωμος
- πελιδνός (pelidnós)appearing weak, pale, or wan
- κατάχλωμος (katáchlomos)appearing weak, pale, or wan
Hungarian halovány
- haloványappearing weak, pale, or wan
Italian pallido
- pallidoappearing weak, pale, or wan
Korean 창백(蒼白)하다, 파리하다
- 창백(蒼白)하다 (changbaekhada)appearing weak, pale, or wan
- 파리하다 (parihada)appearing weak, pale, or wan
Latin pallidus
- pallidusappearing weak, pale, or wan
Māori kōmā
- kōmāappearing weak, pale, or wan
Polish blady
- bladyappearing weak, pale, or wan
Portuguese pálido
- pálidoappearing weak, pale, or wan
Russian бле́дный, сла́бый
- бле́дный (blédnyj)appearing weak, pale, or wan
- сла́бый (slábyj)appearing weak, pale, or wan
Spanish pálido
- pálidoappearing weak, pale, or wan
Swedish blek
- blekappearing weak, pale, or wan
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with pallid
All rhymes →Cite this entry
pallid. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pallid
“pallid.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pallid. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pallid,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pallid.
Source: pallid on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.