Vale
noun /veɪl/ — A valley, especially a broad one
Definition
A valley — typically one that is broad, gentle, and pastoral. In poetry, 'vale' carries a particular tenderness: it is a sheltered place, a world held between hills.
Beyond the definition
The valley with a soul. 'Vale' is the word poets choose when they want the landscape to feel inhabited, protected, quietly alive.
Origin & history
From Old French 'val', from Latin 'vallis' (valley). 'Vale of tears' — the world as a place of sorrow — is one of its oldest figurative uses.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
The vale stretched out below them, green and unhurried, smoke rising from chimneys.
To live in a vale is to be held by the land on three sides — there's comfort in that.
The vale of years — Shakespeare's phrase for old age — suggests both shelter and narrowing.
Synonyms
valley, dale, glen, hollow, dell
Antonyms
peak, summit, ridge
Related words
Word in the Wild
See how this word appears in life, language and stories.
Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.
Fictional scene
Valley Beneath High Ridge
An adult walks alone on a narrow mountain ridge, while far below them lies a deep, forested valley bathed in soft shadow.
A vale is a gentle, broad valley, often considered a sheltered, tender place. The deep, forested valley below the ridge provides a visual contrast to the exposed height of the path, illustrating the vale as a world held between hills—a sheltered, lower landscape that looks serene from above.
Image credit: Wordspun · AI-generated conceptual illustration