gray area
noun
: an area or situation in which it is difficult to judge what is right and what is wrong
There are no gray areas in the rules.
a legal gray area
Examples of gray area in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The rule applies to anything that can be spread, spilled, sprayed, poured, or pumped, which means some items, like peanut butter, can fall into a gray area too.
—
Iona Brannon, Travel + Leisure, 31 Aug. 2025
That group has endorsed Covid-19 vaccines in previous years, but there’s a gray area around what will happen if their recommendations differ from the CDC’s own recommendations, experts say.
—Jacqueline Howard, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2025
At the center of that debate is a legal gray area.
—Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 28 Aug. 2025
Like many other tensions around the current immigration system, which has remained largely unchanged for decades, this gray area has left the federal government open to legal challenges amid ever-growing frustrations around Big Tech and its use of foreign labor.
—Dan Gooding, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 Aug. 2025
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Iona Brannon, Travel + Leisure, 31 Aug. 2025
That group has endorsed Covid-19 vaccines in previous years, but there’s a gray area around what will happen if their recommendations differ from the CDC’s own recommendations, experts say.
—Jacqueline Howard, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2025
At the center of that debate is a legal gray area.
—Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 28 Aug. 2025
Like many other tensions around the current immigration system, which has remained largely unchanged for decades, this gray area has left the federal government open to legal challenges amid ever-growing frustrations around Big Tech and its use of foreign labor.
—Dan Gooding, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gray area
Cite this Entry
“Gray area.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gray%20area. Accessed 5 Sep. 2025.
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