"beyond the pale" meaning in English

See beyond the pale in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

IPA: /bɪˌjɒnd ðə ˈpeɪl/ [Received-Pronunciation], /biˌ(j)ɑnd ðə ˈpeɪl/ [General-American] Audio: En-au-beyond the pale.ogg [Australia]
Rhymes: -eɪl Etymology: From beyond + the + pale (“wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction”), suggesting that anything outside an authority’s jurisdiction is uncivilized. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there is insufficient evidence that the term originally referred to the English Pale, the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages; or to the Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта́ осе́длости (Čertá osédlosti)) which existed from 1791 to 1917 in the Russian Empire, where Jewish people were mostly relegated to living. The first attestation of this English translation of the Russian in the OED is 1890. The Google Ngram Viewer shows a fivefold increase in the use of the expression from 1801 to 1864. Etymology templates: {{m|en|beyond}} beyond, {{m|en|the}} the, {{m|en|pale|t=wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction}} pale (“wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction”), {{l|ru||Черта́ осе́длости}} Черта́ осе́длости (Čertá osédlosti), {{sup|1}} ¹ Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} beyond the pale, {{en-prep phrase}} beyond the pale
  1. (idiomatic) Of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, ethics, etc. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: out of bounds, off-limits, off the reservation, over the line Translations (of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.): 逾越常軌 (Chinese Mandarin), 逾越常轨 (yúyuè chángguǐ) (Chinese Mandarin), over grænsen (Danish), over stregen (Danish), over de grens (Dutch), sivistymätön (Finnish), dépasser les bornes (French), inacceptable (French), inadmissible (French), eindeutig die Grenzen überschritten (German), indiskutabel (German), völlig indiskutabel (German), vollkommen inakzeptabel (German), út úr kortinu (Icelandic), 範囲外 (han'igai) (alt: はんいがい) (Japanese), 常軌を逸した (jōki o isshita) (alt: じょうきをいちした) (Japanese), ဖျိုဟ်ဖျေဟ်အာလ္ပာ်ဖာတေံ။ (phyiuhphyehʼālpākphāteṃ) (Mon), over streken (Norwegian), nie do przyjęcia (Polish), вне ра́мок прили́чия (vne rámok prilíčija) (Russian), al margen de la sociedad (Spanish), clamar al cielo (Spanish), fuera de lugar (Spanish), mas allá de los límites (Spanish), inaceptable (Spanish), intolerable (Spanish), insoportable (Spanish), pasar de castaño oscuro (Spanish), pasar de la raya (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-beyond_the_pale-en-prep_phrase-~cChW-KF Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 54 46 Disambiguation of 'of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.': 97 3
  2. Used other than as an idiom; generally followed by of: beyond the extent or limits. Synonyms: out of bounds, off-limits
    Sense id: en-beyond_the_pale-en-prep_phrase-8gEqr2R1 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 54 46

Download JSON data for beyond the pale meaning in English (13.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "beyond"
      },
      "expansion": "beyond",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "the"
      },
      "expansion": "the",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pale",
        "t": "wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction"
      },
      "expansion": "pale (“wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ru",
        "2": "",
        "3": "Черта́ осе́длости"
      },
      "expansion": "Черта́ осе́длости (Čertá osédlosti)",
      "name": "l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "¹",
      "name": "sup"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From beyond + the + pale (“wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction”), suggesting that anything outside an authority’s jurisdiction is uncivilized.\nAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, there is insufficient evidence that the term originally referred to the English Pale, the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages; or to the Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта́ осе́длости (Čertá osédlosti)) which existed from 1791 to 1917 in the Russian Empire, where Jewish people were mostly relegated to living. The first attestation of this English translation of the Russian in the OED is 1890. The Google Ngram Viewer shows a fivefold increase in the use of the expression from 1801 to 1864.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "beyond the pale",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "beyond the pale",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "be‧yond"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "within the pale"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "54 46",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: over the edge"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1900, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War, page 409",
          "text": "The very date which put them beyond the pale as belligerents was that which they seem to have chosen in order to prove what active and valiant soldiers they still remained.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, page 105",
          "text": "Socially Mack and the boys were beyond the pale. Sam Malloy didn't speak to them as they went by the boiler. They drew into themselves and no one could foresee how they would come out of the cloud. For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. This last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "1951, William O. Douglas, quoted in 2013, Whitney Strub, Perversion for Profit: The Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right, page 43,\n“The teaching of methods of terror and other seditious conduct should be beyond the pale,” he continued, adding as an afterthought, “along with obscenity and immorality.”"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Patricia Hewitt, “3: The Start of Labour's Long March:1985-1992”, in Dennis Kavanagh, editor, Philip Gould: An Unfinished Life, page 42",
          "text": "For most British voters – the people whom Labour claimed to represent – Labour was, quite simply, ‘beyond the pale’.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, ethics, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-beyond_the_pale-en-prep_phrase-~cChW-KF",
      "links": [
        [
          "person",
          "person#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
          "behaviour"
        ],
        [
          "outside",
          "outside#Preposition"
        ],
        [
          "bounds",
          "bound#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "acceptable",
          "acceptable"
        ],
        [
          "regarded",
          "regard#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "good",
          "good#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ],
        [
          "morality",
          "morality"
        ],
        [
          "ethics",
          "ethics"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, ethics, etc."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "out of bounds"
        },
        {
          "word": "off-limits"
        },
        {
          "word": "off the reservation"
        },
        {
          "word": "over the line"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "逾越常軌"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "yúyuè chángguǐ",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "逾越常轨"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "over grænsen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "over stregen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "over de grens"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "sivistymätön"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "dépasser les bornes"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "inacceptable"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "inadmissible"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "eindeutig die Grenzen überschritten"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "indiskutabel"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "völlig indiskutabel"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "vollkommen inakzeptabel"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "út úr kortinu"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "alt": "はんいがい",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "han'igai",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "範囲外"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "alt": "じょうきをいちした",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "jōki o isshita",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "常軌を逸した"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "mnw",
          "lang": "Mon",
          "roman": "phyiuhphyehʼālpākphāteṃ",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "ဖျိုဟ်ဖျေဟ်အာလ္ပာ်ဖာတေံ။"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "no",
          "lang": "Norwegian",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "over streken"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "nie do przyjęcia"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "vne rámok prilíčija",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "вне ра́мок прили́чия"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "al margen de la sociedad"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "clamar al cielo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "fuera de lugar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "mas allá de los límites"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "inaceptable"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "intolerable"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "insoportable"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "pasar de castaño oscuro"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 3",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
          "word": "pasar de la raya"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "within the pale"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "54 46",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1812, Edward William Grinfield, The Nature and Extent of the Christian Dispensation with Reference to the Salvability of the Heathen, page 35",
          "text": "Are they to be placed like devils beyond the pale of all human charities, and to be denied all kindly and benevolent offices?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Raechelle Rubinstein, Beyond the Realm of the Senses: The Balinese Ritual of Kakawin Composition, page 103",
          "text": "[…]but he was essentially a lone traveller in areas beyond the pale of human society.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, David M. Emmons, Beyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West, 1845-1910, page 4",
          "text": "That they had evinced no desire to be Britons, and had made manifest their aversion by holding tenaciously to their Catholicism, only confirmed the wisdom of their consignment beyond the pale.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Tony Kushner, Kenneth Lunn, The Politics of Marginality: Race, the Radical Right and Minorities in Twentieth Century Britain, page 143",
          "text": "In addition it calls into question the common assumption that the holocaust destroyed British anti-Semitism or at least pushed it beyond the pale of respectability.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Heidi Ravven, The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Sciences, and the Myth of Free Will, unnumbered page",
          "text": "We can even discern the outlines of the hidden and disguised religious character of the argument, for the move that Broad makes is not so much to debate Spinoza but to put him beyond the pale of acceptable, legitimate philosophical opinion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than as an idiom; generally followed by of: beyond the extent or limits."
      ],
      "id": "en-beyond_the_pale-en-prep_phrase-8gEqr2R1",
      "links": [
        [
          "of",
          "of#English"
        ],
        [
          "beyond",
          "beyond#Preposition"
        ],
        [
          "extent",
          "extent"
        ],
        [
          "limits",
          "limit#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "out of bounds"
        },
        {
          "word": "off-limits"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˌjɒnd ðə ˈpeɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/biˌ(j)ɑnd ðə ˈpeɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-eɪl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-beyond the pale.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/45/En-au-beyond_the_pale.ogg/En-au-beyond_the_pale.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/En-au-beyond_the_pale.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Google Ngram Viewer",
    "Oxford English Dictionary"
  ],
  "word": "beyond the pale"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪl",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪl/4 syllables"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "beyond"
      },
      "expansion": "beyond",
      "name": "m"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "the"
      },
      "expansion": "the",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pale",
        "t": "wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction"
      },
      "expansion": "pale (“wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ru",
        "2": "",
        "3": "Черта́ осе́длости"
      },
      "expansion": "Черта́ осе́длости (Čertá osédlosti)",
      "name": "l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "¹",
      "name": "sup"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From beyond + the + pale (“wooden stake, picket; fence made from wooden stakes, palisade; bounds, limits; territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction”), suggesting that anything outside an authority’s jurisdiction is uncivilized.\nAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, there is insufficient evidence that the term originally referred to the English Pale, the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages; or to the Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта́ осе́длости (Čertá osédlosti)) which existed from 1791 to 1917 in the Russian Empire, where Jewish people were mostly relegated to living. The first attestation of this English translation of the Russian in the OED is 1890. The Google Ngram Viewer shows a fivefold increase in the use of the expression from 1801 to 1864.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "beyond the pale",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "beyond the pale",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "be‧yond"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "within the pale"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: over the edge"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1900, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War, page 409",
          "text": "The very date which put them beyond the pale as belligerents was that which they seem to have chosen in order to prove what active and valiant soldiers they still remained.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, page 105",
          "text": "Socially Mack and the boys were beyond the pale. Sam Malloy didn't speak to them as they went by the boiler. They drew into themselves and no one could foresee how they would come out of the cloud. For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. This last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "1951, William O. Douglas, quoted in 2013, Whitney Strub, Perversion for Profit: The Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right, page 43,\n“The teaching of methods of terror and other seditious conduct should be beyond the pale,” he continued, adding as an afterthought, “along with obscenity and immorality.”"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Patricia Hewitt, “3: The Start of Labour's Long March:1985-1992”, in Dennis Kavanagh, editor, Philip Gould: An Unfinished Life, page 42",
          "text": "For most British voters – the people whom Labour claimed to represent – Labour was, quite simply, ‘beyond the pale’.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, ethics, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "person",
          "person#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
          "behaviour"
        ],
        [
          "outside",
          "outside#Preposition"
        ],
        [
          "bounds",
          "bound#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "acceptable",
          "acceptable"
        ],
        [
          "regarded",
          "regard#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "good",
          "good#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ],
        [
          "morality",
          "morality"
        ],
        [
          "ethics",
          "ethics"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, ethics, etc."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "out of bounds"
        },
        {
          "word": "off-limits"
        },
        {
          "word": "off the reservation"
        },
        {
          "word": "over the line"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "within the pale"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1812, Edward William Grinfield, The Nature and Extent of the Christian Dispensation with Reference to the Salvability of the Heathen, page 35",
          "text": "Are they to be placed like devils beyond the pale of all human charities, and to be denied all kindly and benevolent offices?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Raechelle Rubinstein, Beyond the Realm of the Senses: The Balinese Ritual of Kakawin Composition, page 103",
          "text": "[…]but he was essentially a lone traveller in areas beyond the pale of human society.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, David M. Emmons, Beyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West, 1845-1910, page 4",
          "text": "That they had evinced no desire to be Britons, and had made manifest their aversion by holding tenaciously to their Catholicism, only confirmed the wisdom of their consignment beyond the pale.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Tony Kushner, Kenneth Lunn, The Politics of Marginality: Race, the Radical Right and Minorities in Twentieth Century Britain, page 143",
          "text": "In addition it calls into question the common assumption that the holocaust destroyed British anti-Semitism or at least pushed it beyond the pale of respectability.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Heidi Ravven, The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Sciences, and the Myth of Free Will, unnumbered page",
          "text": "We can even discern the outlines of the hidden and disguised religious character of the argument, for the move that Broad makes is not so much to debate Spinoza but to put him beyond the pale of acceptable, legitimate philosophical opinion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than as an idiom; generally followed by of: beyond the extent or limits."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "of",
          "of#English"
        ],
        [
          "beyond",
          "beyond#Preposition"
        ],
        [
          "extent",
          "extent"
        ],
        [
          "limits",
          "limit#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "out of bounds"
        },
        {
          "word": "off-limits"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˌjɒnd ðə ˈpeɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/biˌ(j)ɑnd ðə ˈpeɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-eɪl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-beyond the pale.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/45/En-au-beyond_the_pale.ogg/En-au-beyond_the_pale.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/En-au-beyond_the_pale.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "逾越常軌"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "yúyuè chángguǐ",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "逾越常轨"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "over grænsen"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "over stregen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "over de grens"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "sivistymätön"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "dépasser les bornes"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "inacceptable"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "inadmissible"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "eindeutig die Grenzen überschritten"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "indiskutabel"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "völlig indiskutabel"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "vollkommen inakzeptabel"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "út úr kortinu"
    },
    {
      "alt": "はんいがい",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "han'igai",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "範囲外"
    },
    {
      "alt": "じょうきをいちした",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "jōki o isshita",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "常軌を逸した"
    },
    {
      "code": "mnw",
      "lang": "Mon",
      "roman": "phyiuhphyehʼālpākphāteṃ",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "ဖျိုဟ်ဖျေဟ်အာလ္ပာ်ဖာတေံ။"
    },
    {
      "code": "no",
      "lang": "Norwegian",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "over streken"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "nie do przyjęcia"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vne rámok prilíčija",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "вне ра́мок прили́чия"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "al margen de la sociedad"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "clamar al cielo"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "fuera de lugar"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "mas allá de los límites"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "inaceptable"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "intolerable"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "insoportable"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "pasar de castaño oscuro"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "of a person or their behaviour: outside the bounds of what is acceptable, or regarded as good judgment, morality, etc.",
      "word": "pasar de la raya"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Google Ngram Viewer",
    "Oxford English Dictionary"
  ],
  "word": "beyond the pale"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.