Pail or pale?
pail is a noun meaning “A vessel of wood, tin, plastic, etc., usually cylindrical and having a handle…”; pale is an adjective meaning “Light in color”. Use pail as a noun and pale as an adjective. They sound the same (/peɪl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) pale is about 19 times as common as pail.
What is the difference between pail and pale?
| pail | pale | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | adjective, verb, noun, prefix |
| Meaning | A vessel of wood, tin, plastic, etc., usually cylindrical and having a handle -- used especially for carrying liquids, for example water or milk; a bucket… A closed (covered) cylindrical shipping container | Light in color Having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.) To turn pale; to lose colour |
| Example | The milkmaid carried a pail of milk in each hand | I have pale yellow wallpaper |
| Forms | pails | paler, palest |
| Pronunciation | /peɪl/ [pʰeɪ̯ɫ] [pʰeəɫ] | /peɪl/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 12 times per million words |
Sources: pail and pale in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of pail and pale
pail
- 1
A vessel of wood, tin, plastic, etc., usually cylindrical and having a handle -- used especially for carrying liquids, for example water or milk; a bucket (sometimes with a cover)
The milkmaid carried a pail of milk in each hand
- 2
A closed (covered) cylindrical shipping container
pale
- 1
Light in color
I have pale yellow wallpaper
- 2
To turn pale; to lose colour
- 3
A wooden stake; a picket
- 4
To enclose with pales, or as if with pales; to encircle or encompass; to fence off
- 5
Alternative form of paleo- used before vowels
- 6
Having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.)
His face turned pale after hearing about his mother's death
- 7
To become insignificant
12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before…
- 8
Limits, bounds (especially before of)
But let my due feet never fail, / To walk the ſtudious cloyſters pale, / And love the high embowed roof, / With antic pillars maſſy proof, / And ſtoried windows richly dight, /…
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, pail or pale?
pail appears about once in every 2 million words; pale 12 times per million words.
pail about once in every 2 million wordspale 12 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search pail vs pale?
“pail vs pale” is searched about 880 times a month on Google and 40 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“pale vs pail”, “pail or pale”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.