Last Updated on September 27, 2023
Here’s what you need to know to make the right choice of pail or pale when comparing two or more things.
Homophones are words that are pronounced the same way but spelled differently and have different meanings. Homophones can cause plenty of confusion, and our latest example is making the right choice of pail or pale.
One of the words has a single meaning, as a noun. The other has multiple meanings, as a noun, a verb or an adjective.
A pail is a bucket. Many of us, as kids, played with a pail and shovel on the beach. Less common these days than it used to be is the “garbage pail,”  which refers to a wastebasket.
The homophone pale can mean a few things, depending on how it’s used.
The most common meaning is as an adjective which describes something that looks feeble or is without color. Someone who is ill is often said to be pale. The description can likewise be used for people who don’t have a suntan.
Pale can also be used a verb. In this meaning, the title of this post, to pale means to appear diminished alongside something else. Your credit card bill will likely pale in comparison to the national debt. (At least, I certainly hope, for your sake, that this is the case.)
Then there are alternate, lesser-known definitions of pale, which include a fence, the area within a fence (or boundary) or a stake, similar to a picket as in a “white picket fence.”
But despite all those definitions, there is an easy way to know which version to use when you’re comparing two things: you eliminate the wrong one! If you can tell yourself that a pail, which you don’t often see, only refers to a bucket of some kind, pale is your only option left!
