Shades

How to spell shades

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce shades

What does shades mean?

1. nounAreas of relative darkness produced where something blocks direct light.
2. nounVariations or gradations of a colour, or by extension subtle differences in meaning or degree.
3. nounAn informal term for sunglasses.
4. verbScreens from light, or darkens part of a drawing or surface to suggest depth.

Shades in a sentence

• noun

  The tall oaks cast cool shades across the garden by mid-afternoon.

• noun

  The paint chart offered a dozen shades of grey for the hallway.

• noun

  He slipped on his shades as soon as the sun broke through the clouds.

• verb

  The awning shades the shop window from the harsh morning light.

• noun

  The campers pitched their tents in the shades to escape the heat.

• noun

  Her argument contained shades of doubt that she tried to hide.

Where does shades come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English sceadu, which meant a shadow or a place sheltered from light and heat. That noun belonged to a wider Germanic family, related to forms in Old Saxon and Old High German that all carried the idea of darkness cast by a body blocking light. Over the centuries the spelling settled with a final silent 'e' in 'shade', and adding '-s' gives both the plural noun and the third-person verb. The sense branched out naturally: from literal shadow came the idea of a gradation of darkness in a colour, and the casual modern use of 'shades' for sunglasses simply borrows the notion of cutting down glare. The same root also gave English the closely related word 'shadow', which is why the two look and feel so similar.

How the word is built

• shade (Old English sceadu: shadow, shelter)
• -s (plural / third-person verb suffix)