adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Turning white or gray.

   "An aureole of canescent hair fanned out round his head, and his jaws collapsed on toothless gums […]."

2. 2
   Covered with short white or gray hairs; hoary.

Adjective

1. 1
   covered with fine whitish hairs or down wordnet
2. 2
   of greyish white wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

achromaticashenchalkydappledapple graydappled

Example

More examples

"An aureole of canescent hair fanned out round his head, and his jaws collapsed on toothless gums […]."

Etymology

From Latin canescens, present participle of canescere (“to become gray or white”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.