grey area

English

Alternative forms

• gray area (US)

Etymology

Because grey is a blend of black and white, and thus a metaphor for how an imperfect nature is a blend of perfection and perfidy.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

grey area (plural grey areas)

1. (idiomatic) An area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories, where the border between the two is fuzzy or ill-defined.

   It exists in a grey area between legal and illegal.

2. (idiomatic) A topic that is not clearly one thing or the other, that is open to interpretation.
   • 2007 May, Men's Health, volume 22, number 4, page 94:

     Fame is a grey area[.]

Synonyms

• (an area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories): penumbra

Related terms

• grey hat, grey literature, greyline, grey market

Translations

area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 灰色地帶／灰色地带 (huīsèdìdài)

• Danish: gråt område n, gråzone c
• Finnish: harmaa alue
• French: zone grise (fr) f
• German: Grauzone (de) f (especially in legal terminology)
• Japanese: グレーゾーン (gurē zōn), 灰色の領域 (はいいろのりょういき, haīronoryōiki)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gråsone (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: gråsone f

• Polish: nieokreślony (pl), dwuznaczny (pl) m (both adjectives), obszar niejasności
• Russian: се́рая зо́на f (séraja zóna)
• Swedish: gråzon (sv) c

See also

• black and white
• fall between two stools
• twilight zone