shade

/ʃeɪd/

shade noun: darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.

Noun

shade (countable and uncountable, plural shades)

(uncountable) Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
- The old oak tree gave shade in the heat of the day.
- Temps rose to a sweltering 40 degrees Celsius in the shade.
(countable) Something that blocks light, particularly in a window.
- Close the shade, please: it's too bright in here.
- Also, people with darker skin tend to have lower blood levels of vitamin D because the pigment (melanin) acts like a shade, reducing production of vitamin D (and also reducing damaging effects of sunlight on skin, including skin cancer).2023 March, “Vitamin D”, in Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
(countable) A variety of a color, in particular one obtained by adding black (compare tint).
- I've painted my room in five lovely shades of pink and chartreuse.
- Thus light and colours, as white, red, yellow, blue, with their several degrees or shades, and mixtures, as green, scarlet, purple, sea-green, and the rest, come in only by the eyes[…]1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC
(figuratively) A subtle variation in a concept.
- shades of meaning
- new shades and combinations of thought1823, Thomas De Quincey, Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected. No. V. On the English Notices of Kant
(figuratively, in plural) An aspect that is reminiscent of something.
- shades of Groucho Marx
A very small degree of a quantity, or variety of meaning
- That is a shade too close.
- Mrs. Rhodes who (so I gathered from Mr. Petherick's careful language) was perhaps just a shade of a hypochondriac, had retired to bed immediately after dinner.1934, Agatha Christie, Miss Marple Tells a Story
(literary) A ghost or specter; a spirit.
- Too long have I been haunted by that shade.
- The adventurer was attacked by a shade.
(countable) A postage stamp showing an obvious difference in colour/color to the original printing and needing a separate catalogue/catalog entry.
(uncountable) Subtle insults.
- throw shade
- Why did you paint your room chartreuse? No shade; I'm genuinely curious.
(countable) A cover around or above a light bulb, a lampshade.
- Lighting was unimaginative for the standard stock with naked tungsten filament bulbs and metal reflectors. However, all compartments had individual reading lights above the seats with attractive glass shades.1979 August, Graham Burtenshaw, Michael S. Welch, “O.V.S. Bulleid's SR loco-hauled coaches - 1”, in Railway World, page 398
(historical) A candle-shade.
- I am now finishing this letter by candle-light, with the help of a handkerchief tied over the shade.1817, T. Munro, Life, i. 511
- His tent is furnished with a good large bed, mattress, pillow, &c., a few camp-stools or chairs, a folding table, a pair of shades for his candles, six or seven trunks with table equipage, his stock of linen (at least 24 shirts); some dozens of wine, brandy, and gin; tea, sugar, and biscuit; and a...1789, Munro's Narrative, 186

Verb

shade (third-person singular simple present shades, present participle shading, simple past and past participle shaded)

(transitive) To shield (someone or something) from light.
- The old oak tree shaded the lawn in the heat of the day.
(intransitive, rare) To shield oneself from light.
- We shaded under a huge oak tree.
(transitive) To alter slightly.
- You'll need to shade your shot slightly to the left.
- Most politicians will shade the truth if it helps them.
(intransitive) To vary or approach something slightly, particularly in color.
- The hillside was bright green, shading towards gold in the drier areas.
- This small group will be most conveniently treated with the emotional division, into which it shades.1886, Edmund Gurney, Phantasms of the Living
(intransitive) To move slightly from one's normal fielding position.
- Jones will shade a little to the right on this pitch count.
(transitive) To darken, particularly in drawing.
- I draw contours first, gradually shading in midtones and shadows.
To win by a narrow margin.
- Both parties claimed afterwards that their man did best in the debate, but an early opinion poll suggested Mr Cameron shaded it.
- It was Alexis Mac Allister who lit the touchpaper at the start of the second half, scoring from the penalty spot to cancel out John Stones’s opener for City midway through a first half that the defending champions had shaded.2024 March 10, David Hytner, “Doku involved at both ends as Liverpool and Manchester City share spoils”, in The Guardian
(transitive) To reduce (a window) so that only its title bar is visible.

Antonyms:

unshade
(slang, transitive) To throw shade, to subtly insult someone.
- The lyrics have prompted headlines about her “shading” Musk with a “spicy dig”, but I reckon the guy got off lightly.2021 December 8, Arwa Mahdawi, “Elon Musk is learning a hard lesson: never date a musician”, in The Guardian
(obsolete, transitive) To shelter; to cover from injury; to protect; to screen.
- Ere in our own house I do shade my head.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
(obsolete, transitive) To present a shadow or image of; to shadow forth; to represent.
- His [Osiris’s] wife was Iſis, whom they likewiſe made / A Goddeſſe of great powre and ſouerainty, / And in her perſon cunningly did ſhade / That part of Iuſtice, which is Equity, […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 3, page 268

Proper noun capitalized: Shade

Shade (plural Shades)

A surname.

shade meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

shade in Hindi

darkness where light is blocked: छाया chāyā

shade in Tamil

darkness where light is blocked: நிழல் niḻal

shade in Marathi

darkness where light is blocked: सावली sāvlī

shade in Urdu

darkness where light is blocked: چھایا chāyā

More languagesFewer languages

shade in Bengali: আওতা aōta
shade in Telugu: నీడ nīḍa, షేడు ṣēḍu, రంగు raṅgu
shade in Malayalam: നിഴൽ niḻal
shade in Kannada: ನೆರಳು neraḷu
shade in Punjabi: ਛਾਂ chā̃, چھاں chāṉ
shade in Gujarati: છાંયડી chā̃yaḍī
shade in Odia: ଛାଇ chāi
shade in Sanskrit: छाया chāyā
shade in Nepali: छाहारि chāhāri
shade in Tagalog: lilim, tarlong, itiman, diliman
shade in Arabic: ظِلّ ẓill, مَظَلَّة maẓalla, مِظَلَّة miẓalla
shade in Indonesian: bayangan
shade in Thai: ร่ม rôm
shade in Vietnamese: bóng
shade in Myanmar: အရိပ် a.rip, ဆာယာ hcaya

Examples of shade in a sentence

Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
Speaking of round sunglasses, these lightweight polarized ones and come in two shades of tortoiseshell as well as black and bronze.2023 June 26, Lauren Caruso and Jillian Tracy, “The 22 best sunglasses for summer, according to style experts”, in CNN:
Every shade of religious and political opinion had its own headquarters.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify...
These performances, which include plenty of great one-liners and physical gags but also unearth subtler shades of frustration and self-doubt, are some of my favorites of hers.2026 January 30, Judy Berman, “Catherine O’Hara Portrayed the Vain and Delusional With a Radical Lack of Vanity”, in TIME, archived from...

All 40 example sentences with shade

Antonyms of shade

unshade

Forms of shade

Noun
plural	shades
Verb
third-person singular present	shades
present participle	shading
past participle	shaded
past	shaded
Proper noun
plural	Shades

Past tense of shade: shaded

Plural of shade: shades

Origin of shade

Inherited from Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skaduz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱh₃tús, from *(s)ḱeh₃-. Doublet of shadow. Cognate with Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos) (whence English scoto-) and σκιά (skiá) (whence English scia-, and uncertainly via σκίουρος (skíouros) English squirrel).

Inherited from Middle English schaden, from schade + -en.

Words formed from shade

Phrases with shade

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

shade tree mechanics

Words that rhyme with shade

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shade

What does shade mean?: Shade means darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
What is shade in Hindi?: Shade in Hindi is छाया (chāyā). See Shade meaning in Hindi.
How do you use shade in a sentence?: Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].
What part of speech is shade?: Shade can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce shade?: Shade is pronounced /ʃeɪd/.
What is the plural of shade?: The plural of shade is shades.

Words near shade in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shade.ogg.

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