Word.ws English Dictionary

pastel

Syllables: past·el/ˈpæstl̩/US/pæsˈtɛl/

pastel noun: any of several subdued tints of colors, usually associated with pink, peach, yellow, green, blue, and lavender.

pastel: any of several subdued tints of colors, usually associated with pink, peach, yellow, green, blue,...
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

pastel (countable and uncountable, plural pastels)

  1. Any of several subdued tints of colors, usually associated with pink, peach, yellow, green, blue, and lavender.
  2. A drawing made with any of those colors.
  3. A type of dried paste used to make crayons.
  4. A crayon made from such a paste.
  5. Woad.
    • Wool was dyed in the pastel vat.

Noun (2)

pastel (countable and uncountable, plural pastels or pasteles)

  1. A traditional dish in various Latin American countries and in Indonesia, resembling a tamale, pasty, or calzone.
  2. A Filipino stew made with vegetables, sausages, and chicken or other meat in a creamy sauce.

pastel meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Vietnamese

pastel in Bengali

প্যাস্টেল রঙ, হালকা রঙ

pastel in Malayalam

light, pale, soft
ഇളം നിറമുള്ള, ഇളംനിറമായ, സാന്ദ്രത കുറഞ്ഞ, കടുപ്പം കുറഞ്ഞ, നേർത്ത, സൂക്ഷ്മ

pastel in Kannada

ಬಣ್ಣದ ಕಡ್ಡಿ, ಬಣ್ಣದ ಬಳಪ

pastel in Vietnamese

type of dried paste
phấn tiên

Examples of pastel in a sentence

  • Her room is full of kawaii, with pastel plushies, anime posters, and cute stationery.
  • I sprayed a clearcoat over her pastel drawing, so it ought to last many years without smudging.
  • I clearcoated her pastel drawing, so it ought to last many years without smudging.

All 39 example sentences with pastel

Forms of pastel

pluralpastels
alternative formpastille
pluralpasteles

Plural of pastel: pastels

Origin of pastel

Borrowed from French pastel, from Italian pastello (“pastel”), from Medieval Latin pastellum (“dough, paste”), from Latin pasta (“dough, paste”), ultimately from Ancient Greek πάστη (pástē, “dough, paste”). Doublet of pastegh, pastiglia, pastila, pastilla, and pastille.

Borrowed from Spanish pastel, ultimately the same word as Etymology 1.

Words formed from pastel

Phrases with pastel

Words that rhyme with pastel

Questions about pastel

What does pastel mean?
Pastel means any of several subdued tints of colors, usually associated with pink, peach, yellow, green, blue, and lavender.
What is pastel in Bengali?
Pastel in Bengali is প্যাস্টেল রঙ, হালকা রঙ. See Pastel meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is pastel?
Pastel is a noun.
How do you pronounce pastel?
Pastel is pronounced /ˈpæstl̩/ (UK).
What is the plural of pastel?
The plural of pastel is pastels.

Words near pastel in the dictionary

  1. pastedown
  2. pastedowns
  3. pastegh
  4. pasteghs
  5. pastejacking
  6. pastel
  7. pastel de nata
  8. pastel de natas
  9. pasteler
  10. pastelers
  11. pasteles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pastel (page history and authors); Pastel (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pastel (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); pastel (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pastel.wav.

Cite this entry: “pastel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pastel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.