use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

shade (shād)
Share:
n.
1. Light diminished in intensity as a result of the interception of the rays; partial darkness.
2. Cover or shelter provided by interception by an object of the sun or its rays: sat in the shade under the tree.
3. The part of a picture or photograph depicting darkness or shadow.
4.
a. A gradation of a color as it is mixed with black or is decreasingly illuminated: shades of gray.
b. A slight difference or variation; a nuance: shades of meaning. See Synonyms at nuance.
c. A small amount; a trace: detected a shade of bitterness in her remarks.
5.
a. Any of various devices used to reduce or screen light or heat: closed the window shades.
b. shades Informal Sunglasses.
6. shades
a. Dark shadows gathering at dusk: “The shades of night are falling fast” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).
b. The abode of the dead; the underworld: went to the shades of hell.
7.
a. A disembodied spirit; a ghost.
b. shades A present reminder of a person or situation in the past: shades of my high-school days.
8. Slang Scornful criticism or contempt: “Most fans are now speculating that the letters written on her gown were not just random and in fact were supposed to throw shade at her estranged husband” (Ashley Mitchell).
v. shad·ed, shad·ing, shades
v. tr.
1. To screen from light or heat: Trees shaded the street.
2. To obscure or darken: “A sliver of mustache shaded his upper lip” (Michael Finkel).
3.
a. To represent degrees of shade or shadow in: shade a drawing.
b. To produce (gradations of light or color) in a drawing or picture: shaded the pink in the sunset.
4. To change or vary by slight degrees: shade the meaning.
5. To make a slight reduction in: shade prices.
v. intr.
To pass from one quality, color, or thing to another by very slight changes or degrees.
Idiom:
a shade
A little bit; slightly: a sprinter who was a shade quicker that the rest.

[Middle English, from Old English sceadu.]

shader n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.