grey area

English

Alternative forms

• gray area (US)

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

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.

   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, in 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

Translations

area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 灰色地帶／灰色地带 (huīsè dìdài), 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: グレーゾーン (gurē zōn)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gråsone m or f

  Nynorsk: gråsone f

• Russian: се́рая зо́на f (séraja zóna)
• Swedish: gråzon (sv) c

See also

• black and white
• fall between two stools