India pale ale
India pale ale noun: a beer, with a high level of alcohol and hops, traditionally made for export from Britain to India.
Noun
India pale ale (countable and uncountable, plural India pale ales)
- A beer, with a high level of alcohol and hops, traditionally made for export from Britain to India.
- This action proceeds most satisfactorily at a temperature of 72° F., and care is taken in the brewing of the finer varieties of beer, such as India pale ale and bitter beer, […]1868, Chambers's Encyclopædia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, page 810
- Not bad for an amber or pale ale, but India pale ale, I don't think so. So why does Bass put IPA on the label?1998, Pete Slosberg, Beer for Pete's Sake: The Wicked Adventures of a Brewing Maverick, page 128
Forms of India pale ale
| plural | India pale ales |
|---|---|
| alternative initialism | IPA |
Origin of India pale ale
From India + pale ale, from being the type of beer, an ale with little colouration, shipped from Britain to India, with a higher hops content to prevent spoilage and further fermentation during transit.
Words formed from India pale ale
- double India pale ale
- imperial India pale ale
- New England India pale ale
- West Coast India pale ale
Questions about India pale ale
- What does India pale ale mean?
- India pale ale means a beer, with a high level of alcohol and hops, traditionally made for export from Britain to India.
- What part of speech is India pale ale?
- India pale ale is a noun.
- What is the plural of India pale ale?
- The plural of India pale ale is India pale ales.
Words near India pale ale in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: India pale ale (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “India pale ale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/india_pale_ale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.