etiolated
eti·o·lat·ed/ˈiː.tɪ.ə(ʊ).leɪ.tɪd/adjective, verb
etiolated is an adjective meaning “Of a plant or part of a plant: pale and weak because of sunlight deprivation or excessive exposure to sunlight” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-T-I-O-L-A-T-E-D and has 4 syllables (eti·o·lat·ed), and it appears about once in every 24 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does etiolated mean?
adjective
- 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.
Birds inhabiting desert regions have an etiolated appearance.
- 4
Lacking in vigour; anemic, feeble.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of etiolate
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce etiolated?
- UK /ˈiː.tɪ.ə(ʊ).leɪ.tɪd/
Etiolated has 4 syllables, split eti·o·lat·ed in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-etiolated.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of etiolated
- more etiolated comparative
- most etiolated superlative
- aetiolated
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is etiolated?
Etiolated appears about once in every 24 million words in written English, the 148,541st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does etiolated come 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).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).