Wooden pale (5)
I believe the answer is:
ashen
'pale' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'wooden' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'wooden' could be 'ash' (made of ash) and 'ash' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'en' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ashen that I've seen before include "Anaemic-looking" , "'Very pale, from shock say (5)'" , "Having gone pale" , "Very pale, with shock or fear" , "bleached" .)