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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

etiolated.

Of a plant or part of a plant: pale and weak because of sunlight deprivation or excessive exposure to sunlight.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈiː.tɪ.ə(ʊ).leɪ.tɪd/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Of a plant or part of a plant: pale and weak because of sunlight deprivation or excessive exposure to sunlight.

  2. Of a plant: intentionally grown in the dark.

  3. Of an animal or person: having an ashen or pale appearance; also, haggard or thin; physically weak.

    broadly
    Birds inhabiting desert regions have an etiolated appearance.
  4. Lacking in vigour; anemic, feeble.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

From etiolate + -ed (suffix forming adjectives); modelled after French étiolé, the past participle of étioler (“to become pale and weak, etiolate”), from Norman étieuler (“to become plant stalks left over after harvesting to be used as fodder or for thatching”), probably from éteule (“plant stalks left over after harvesting, stubble”) + -er (suffix forming verbs). Éteule is derived from Old French esteule (“straw”), from Latin stipula (“plant stalk; plant stalk left over after harvesting, stubble; straw”), from Proto-Italic *stipelā, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steyp- (“to be stiff; erect”).

verb/ˈiː.tɪ.ə(ʊ).leɪ.tɪd/Received-Pronunciation
  1. simple past and past participle of etiolate

    form-of · participle · past
Where this word comes from

From etiolate + -ed (suffix forming verbs).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.