🇺🇸
/ˈæʃən/
🇺🇸
/ˈæʃən/
🇬🇧
/ˈæʃən/
🇬🇧
/ˈæʃən/
Ashen describes a pale, grayish, lifeless color—like cold ash—and is most often used to describe someone's face when they're terrified, shocked, or extremely ill. It’s not just pale; it’s the eerie, drained look of someone who’s seen a ghost or just heard devastating news.
When she heard the diagnosis, her face turned ashen in an instant.
He stood frozen, ashen and speechless, after witnessing the accident.
The ashen light of dawn filtered through the smoke-filled room.
Her ashen lips trembled as she tried to speak.
The firefighter emerged from the blaze, his face streaked with soot and ashen with exhaustion.
ash
Comes from Old English 'æsce', meaning 'the powdery residue left after burning'. It is a native Germanic root denoting the grayish-white, lifeless substance resulting from combustion. Examples include ash, ashtray, ash heap, ashlar (a stone cut to resemble smooth ash-like uniformity), and ashen itself.