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In his poem “After the Winter,” Jamaican-born poet and novelist Claude McKay writes of a “summer isle / Where bamboos spire to shafted grove / And wide-mouthed orchids smile,” declaring that “… we will build a cottage there / Beside an open glade …” It’s a serene, joyous vision offered to the speaker’s beloved, and it may shine a bit of light on the etymological connection between glade and the adjective glad, besides. Glade, which has been part of the English language since the early 1500s, was originally used not just to indicate a clearing in the woods but often specifically to refer to one filled with sunlight (note that McKay specifies that his glade is “open,” as glades can be in full or partial shade). It’s this sunniness that has led some etymologists over the years to suggest a connection with glad, which in Middle English also meant “shining.” To further the intrigue, a now-obsolete sense of glade once referred to a clear or bright space in the sky, or to a flash of light or lightning.
Examples of glade in a Sentence
Cyril E. Holland, Outdoor Life, 8 May 2025
Or Frank Lloyd Wright, with his long, often low-slung homes of concrete and red tidewater cypress, designed to harmonize with their surroundings (Fallingwater, one of his most famous works, is perched over a creek in a quiet glade outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).
—Nick Remsen, CNN Money, 7 Apr. 2025
Limited to groups of 12, most riders will get six to eight laps on 2,000 acres of bowls, glades and steep terrain that's off limits to the resort's other guests.
—Kale Williams, Axios, 7 Feb. 2025
Our crew was most impressed, however, with the glades.
—Drew Zieff, Outside Online, 15 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Glade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glade. Accessed 21 May. 2025.
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glade
noun
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