shade
n. uncountablen. an area that is dark because something is blocking the light from the sun. You sit here to stay cool on a hot day.
n. comparative darkness caused by the interception of light rays by an opaque object. Often used in a collective sense to describe areas protected from direct sunlight.
We sat in the shade of a large oak tree.
The temperature was nearly forty degrees, so we spent the entire afternoon resting in the shade of the porch.
The artist used varying degrees of shade to create a sense of depth, making the flat canvas appear like a three-dimensional landscape.
From Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, sċadu (“shadow; shade”), from Proto-West Germanic skadu, from Proto-Germanic skadwaz (“shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness, shadow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots shedda (“shadow”), Saterland Frisian Skaad, Skade (“shade, shadow”), West Frisian skaad, skâd (“shade, shadow”), Central Franconian and Limburgish Schatte (“shadow”), Dutch schade, schaduw (“shadow”), German Schatten (“shade, shadow”), German Low German Scharr, Scharre (“shade, shadow”), Luxembourgish Schiet (“shade, shadow”), Vilamovian siota (“shadow”), Yiddish שאָטן (shotn, “shadow”), Faroese skadda (“thick wet mountain fog”), Icelandic skodda, skoddi (“shadow”), Norwegian Bokmål skodde (“fog, mist”), Norwegian Nynorsk skodde, skåddj, skåidd (“fog; ice fog”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌳𐌿𐍃 (skadus, “shadow”); also Breton skeud (“shadow; reflection; ghost”), Cornish skeus (“shadow; reflection”), Irish scáth (“shadow”), Manx scaa, skæ (“shield; shade, shadow”), Scottish Gaelic sgàth (“shade, shadow”), Latin obscurus (“dark, dusky, shadowy”), Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos, “darkness, gloom”) (whence English scoto-), Belarusian сівы́ (sivý, “grey”), Czech and Slovak sivý (“grey”), Macedonian осој (osoj, “shady place”), Polish siwy (“grey”), Russian си́вый (sívyj, “grey”), Serbo-Croatian сив, siv (“grey”), Slovene osoja (“shady place”), Ukrainian си́вий (sývyj, “grey”), Armenian սեաւ (seaw), սեւ (sew, “black”), Ossetian сау (saw, “black”), Persian سه (sah), سیه (siyah), سیاه (siyâh, “black”), Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma, “black”), श्याव (śyāva, “dark”).
From Middle English schaden, from the noun.
Usually uncountable when referring to the area of darkness; countable when referring to a specific variety of a color.
I am sitting in the shadow of the tree to stay cool.I am sitting in the shade of the tree to stay cool.Learners confuse 'shadow' (the specific shape on the ground) with 'shade' (the general area of coolness and darkness).