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white

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also:White

English

Various shades ofwhite
Six chess pieces, fourwhite and two black.
A mountain covered inwhite snow.
A glass ofwhite wine.
Awhite woman.
Picture dictionary:color
color
color
white

Several of the most commoncolor words in English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited fromMiddle Englishwhit,hwit, fromOld Englishhwīt, fromProto-West Germanic*hwīt, fromProto-Germanic*hwītaz, fromProto-Indo-European*ḱweydós, a byform of*ḱweytós(“bright; shine”).

Cognates

Pronunciation

Adjective

white (comparativewhiterormorewhite,superlativewhitestormostwhite)

  2. Bright andcolourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
    Antonyms:black,nonwhite,unwhite
    Write in black ink onwhite paper.
    • c.1878,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,Holidays:
      white as thewhitest lily on a stream.
    • 2022 May 9, Casey Barber, “Strawberry season has arrived. Here are tips for enjoying spring’s sweetest treat”, inCNN‎[1], archived fromthe original on4 July 2022:
      While some of the more exotic varieties are becoming more popular with nationwide growers, such as the pale pinkishwhite pineberry, local farms will frequently plant a few different varieties to best suit their region.
  4. (sometimescapitalized) Of or relating toEuropeans or those ofEuropean descent, regardless if their skin has cool or warm undertones.
  5. (sometimescapitalized) Of or relating toCaucasians(people with white complexion and European ancestry).
    • 1949, Wendell P. Alston, “The Green Book”, inThe Negro Motorist Green Book, New York: Victor H. Green, published1949, page 3:
      […]morewhite corporations cognizant of the mounting purchasing power of the Negro consumer, have Negro representatives in the field […].
    • 2004 May 9, Michael Joseph Gross, “When the Losers Ruled in Teenage Movies”, inNew York Times‎[2]:
      Ms. Ringwald finds a few things about these films regrettable. One thing she found "significantly disturbing," she wrote, "was howwhite the films are."
    • 2004,Tina Fey,Mean Girls, spoken by Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried):
      If you're from Africa, why are youwhite?
    • 2025 December 21, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, quotingJD Vance, “Vance Refuses to Take Sides in G.O.P. Fight Over Bigotry”, inThe New York Times‎[3], New York, N.Y.:The New York Times Company,→ISSN,→OCLC:
      “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for beingwhite anymore.”
      (Can wearchive thisURL?)
  6. (sometimescapitalized) ByU.S. Census Bureau definition, of or relating to people hailing fromEurope,North Africa, and theMiddle East.
  7. (chiefly historical) Designated for use by Caucasians.
    white drinking fountain
    white hospital
  8. Relativelylight orpale incolour.
    white wine
    white grapes
    white birch
  9. Pale orpallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
  10. (of a person or skin) Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; nottanned.
    Synonyms:fair,pale
    Antonym:tanned
  11. (of an animal) Affected byleucism.
  13. (ofcoffee ortea)Containingcream,milk, orcreamer.
    Antonym:black
  14. (board games, chess) The standard denomination of the playingpieces of aboard game deemed to belong to the white set, no matter what the actual colour.
    Thewhite pieces in this set are in fact made of light green glass.
    • 2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, inFIDE‎[4], page21:
      Consequently, in the initial position thewhite pieces and pawns are placed on the first and second ranks; the black pieces and pawns on the eighth and seventh ranks.
  15. Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in whitehabits;Cistercian.
    awhite monk
  16. (now less common and often offensive)Honourable,fair,decent,kind;generous.
    • 1693,Decimus Junius Juvenalis,John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Second Satyr”, inThe Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires ofAulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […],→OCLC:
      White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
    • 1837, M. Huxley, in Timothy Mather Cooley,Sketches of the life and character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, A. M., for many years pastor of a church in Rutland, Vt., and late in Granville, New-York, page 73:
      'The preacher had not proceeded far in his sermon,' said the man, ' before I thought him thewhitest man I ever saw. My hat was instantly taken off and thrown under the seat, and I found myself listening with the most profound attention.'
    • 1867, Mark Twain,The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches, George Routledge and Sons, page36:
      ... the parson,[…] was one among thewhitest men I ever see, and it an't every man that knowed him that can find it in his heart to say he's glad the poor cuss is busted and gone home to the States. He was here in an early day, and he was the handyest man about takin' holt of any thing that come along you most ever see, I judge. He was a cheerful, stirrin' cretur', always doin' something, and no man can say he ever see him do any thing by halvers.
    • 1877, Walter Besant, James Rice,The Golden Butterfly, page218:
      ... Rayner seems powerful anxious to get you on the paper. A good fellow is Rayner; aswhite a man as I ever knew; and he has as many old friends as would make a good-sized city.
    • 1897, Rudyard Kipling,Captains Courageous:
      "So I'm here to say I'm sorry." Another big gulp.
      Troop heaved himself slowly off the locker he was sitting on and held out an eleven-inch hand. "I mistrusted 'twould do you sights o' good; an' this shows I weren't mistook in my jedgments[sic]."
      "You'rewhite," said Dan, as Harvey regained the deck, flushed to the tips of his ears.
    • 1737,Alexander Pope,First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace; republished inThe Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company,1902,page194:
      Nowhiter page than Addison's remains. / He from the taste obscene reclaims our youth, / And sets the passions on the side of Truth,
    • 1901,Hamlin Garland,Her Mountain Lover, page51:
      “I’ll put you down at my club; and then, the governor will want to see you in the country.” / Jim had no idea of what was involved in being put down at a club, but he consented. “That ’s mightywhite of you, old man, but I don’t know where I shall make down.”
    • 1913, Edith Wharton,The Custom of the Country, Penguin,→ISBN, page155:
      "I meant to actwhite by you," he answered.
    • 1916, Julia Frankau,Twilight:
      He's a fine fellow, this Gabriel Stanton, awhite man all through
    • 1953,Raymond Chandler,The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published2010, page12:
      ‘We've only met twice and you've been more thanwhite to me both times.’
    • 1976,United Church of Christ,A.D., number 1, page34:
      Even decency has been regarded as awhite or Christian attribute, as is evidenced by the expression "that's verywhite of you"
  17. Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair;hoary.
  18. (archaic) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
  19. (obsolete) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
  20. (politics) Pertaining toconstitutional or anti-revolutionarypolitical parties or movements.
    • 1932,Duff Cooper,Talleyrand, Folio Society, published2010, page163:
      Aimée de Coigny had always adopted with enthusiasm the political views of her ruling lover and she had thus already held nearly every shade of opinion from red republicanism towhite reaction.
  21. (of tea) Made from immature leaves and shoots.
    • 2012, Mary Lou Heiss, Robert J. Heiss,The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook,→ISBN:
      Most often consisting of a budset pluck, a frost tea has the clarity and freshness of awhite tea, with the richness and lingering finish of a finely crafted black tea.
  22. (typography) Not containing characters;seewhite space.
  24. (typography) Said of a symbol or characteroutline, notsolid, notfilled with color. Compareblack(“said of a character or symbol filled with color”).
    Compare two Unicode symbols:☞ = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX";☛ = "BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX"
  25. Characterised by the presence ofsnow.
    awhite Christmas
    awhite Easter
  26. (of a set of armor)Alwhite, pertaining towhite armor.
    • 2015 August 31, Albrecht Classen,Handbook of Medieval Culture, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG,→ISBN:
      For instance, tyro jousters in fifteenth-century Iberia wore “white armor,” while experienced men wore surcoats over their harness (Fallows 2010, 80), while fabric-covered breastplates are depicted in many examples of fifteenth-century northern European art.

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

Translations

bright and colourless
of or relating to Caucasians—see alsoCaucasian
designated for use by Caucasians
relatively light or pale in colour
pale or pallid
lacking tan
of coffee or tea, containing milk etc.
board games: deemed to belong to the white set
Cistercian—seeCistercian
honourable, fair, decent
grey, as from old age
characterized by freedom from that which disturbs
favourite; darling
politics: anti-revolutionary
of tea: made from immature leaves and shoots
typography: not containing characters

Noun

An egg yolk surrounded by the eggwhite.
a cabbagewhite, aPieris butterfly.

white (countable anduncountable,pluralwhites)

  1. Thecolor ofsnow ormilk; the color of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
    • 2012, Andrew Martin,Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books,→ISBN, page117:
      Not only were the platforms tiled inwhite, the tunnels were paintedwhite too - to prettify them, and make them less claustrophobic - and theCentral proudly issued a postcard of its tunnel-whitening machine.
  2. A person ofEuropean descent withlight-colored skin.
    • 1912,Arthur Conan Doyle,The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.:Hodder and Stoughton,→OCLC:
      The Indians carried first our canoes and then our stores through the brushwood, which is very thick at this point, while we fourwhites, our rifles on our shoulders, walked between them and any danger coming from the woods.
    • 2012, Michelle Alexander,The New Jim Crow,→ISBN, page54:
      The War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters, particularlywhites who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and affirmative action.
    Synonyms:seeThesaurus:white person
  3. Anybutterfly of the subfamilyPierinae in thefamilyPieridae.
    • 1869,Alfred Russel Wallace,The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page297:
      Several other beautiful butterflies rewarded my search in this place [...] The most abundant butterflies were thewhites and yellows (Pieridae), several of which I had already found at Lombock and at Coupang, while others were new to me.
  4. (countable and uncountable)White wine.
    • 1977, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, inBilly Joel (music),The Stranger:
      A bottle of red, a bottle ofwhite / It all depends upon your appetite / I'll meet you any time you want / In our Italian Restaurant.
    • 2014, Maximillian Potter,Shadows in the Vineyard:
      Those were my first impressions of wine: Ladies drink chilled, softwhite while they gossip in the kitchen; old men drink strong, room-temperature red to get shellacked.
  5. (countable and uncountable)White coffee
  7. (uncountable)Ellipsis ofwhite bread
    Hypernyms:bread <food
    Coordinate terms:wheat,rye,pumpernickel
  8. (countable) Any object or substance that is of the color white.
    1. Thealbumen ofbirdeggs (egg white).
    2. (anatomy) Thesclera, white of theeye.
    3. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) Thecue ball incue games.
    4. (slang, US, UK)Cocaine.
      Synonyms:seeThesaurus:cocaine
      • 2004, “On The Run”, Kanye West (music), performed by Bump J ft. Rick James, Atlantic:
        I've got to hit the streets; I've got to move thiswhite.
      • 2019 January 20, Ann Cleeves, Paul Matthew Thompson, “Cuckoo” (1:26:51 from the start), in Lawrence Gough, director,Vera, season 9, episode 2 (TV series), spoken by Tyler Lennon (Louis Healy):
        Ten grand a week we were clearing: base,white, meth, weed, anything. I can get you anything to get you high.
      • 2024, “Entrapreneur”, performed byCentral Cee:
        We was flyin' up O withwhite, we was buildin' lines, now it's clothing lines
    5. The snow- or ice-covered "green" insnow golf.
    6. A whitepigment.
      Venicewhite
    7. A whitebean.
      • 1952,Columbia River and Tributaries, Northwestern United States, United States Government Printing Office, page3764:
        Nearly two-thirds of the Idaho crop has been great northerns, one-sixth small reds, and the remainder small flatwhites and pintos and seed for snap beans and baby limas (table 21).
  9. (archery) The central part of thebutt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of amark at which amissile is shot.
  10. Theenclosed part of aletter of the alphabet, especially whenhandwritten.
    • 1594,Hugh Plat, chapter 38, inThe Jewell House of Art and Nature‎[5], London, page42:
      Also it giueth a great grace to your writing, if thewhites of certeine letters bee made of one equall bignesse with the o. supposing the same were all round, as thewhite of the b. of the a. p. y. v. w. x. q. d. g. and s.
    • 1677,Hannah Woolley,The Compleat Servant-Maid‎[6], London: T. Passinger, page18:
      […] the a. b. d. g. o. p. q. &c.[…] must be made with equalwhites.
    • 1931,Margery Allingham, chapter 14, inPolice at the Funeral‎[7], Penguin, published1939, page157:
      She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the insidewhites of the letters registered on her mind.
  11. A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.[1]
    Synonym:prime
    • 1909,Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, page514:
      3.—Wing-Quills or Remiges;Whites and Feminas.—The wing-quills are the largest feathers in the wing, and are arranged in a single row. They include the “Whites” in the cock, and the “Feminas” in the hen, as well as the “Byocks” or “Fancies” in the cock.
    • 1909 August 12, “Ostrich Feathers of Tripoli”, inNeenah Daily Times, volume53, number8,451, Neenah, Wis.; Menasha, Wis., column 5:
      The usual kinds of ostrich feathers known to the trade come into the Tripoli market. These arewhites, blacks, feminas, byocks, spadonas, boos, drabs and floss.
    • 1910 October 30,The Arizona Republican, volume XXI, number161, Phoenix, Ariz., page 9:
      Whites, primes, pound, $120 to $300[…]Thewhites and blacks come from the male birds, the feminas and drabs from the female, the spadones are the first clipping taken from the young birds and the tails from each.
    • 1923,South African Law Reports. Cape Provincial Division: Decisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa (Cape of Good Hope Provincial Decision)., page532:
      This parcel included 286 lbs. of feathers known aswhites, and 211 lbs. of feathers known asfeminas. Thewhites are described as lot 12, and the feminas as lot 13.
  12. (board games, chess) The person playing with the white set of pieces.
    In this position,white has an opportunity to make a good move.
    • 2023 January 13,Leonard Barden, “Chess: Carlsen takes on young guns at Wijk as world champion eyes record”, inThe Guardian‎[8], archived fromthe original on23 January 2023:
      1...Qd3 2 Ne1 Nd2! wins since 3 Nxd3 Rxf1 mate while 3 Qxc7+ Kg6 only delays the end. The bestWhite can do is 3 Qc3+ Qxc3 4 Rxc3 Rxe1 when Black also wins the Bf1 and will be two pieces up.

Derived terms

Translations

color
person of European descent
common name for butterflies in the subfamily Pierinae
short form of white wine—see alsowhite wine
white coffee—seewhite coffee
white of the egg—seealbumen
white of the eye
cue ball
street name for cocaine
"green" in snow golf
white pigment
white bean
archery: central part of the butt
enclosed part of a handwritten letter
ostrich feather of the palest possible shade
board games: person playing with the white pieces
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

white (third-person singular simple presentwhites,present participlewhiting,simple past and past participlewhited)

  1. (transitive) To make white; towhiten; tobleach.

Derived terms

See also

Colo(u)rs in English(layout ·text)
            red        orange            yellow            green            blue (incl.    indigo;
            cyan,teal,turquoise)		            purple /violet
        pink (including
        magenta)		        brown    white            gray/grey    black

References

  1. ^“white,n.”, inDictionary of South African English, Makhanda, Eastern Cape: Dictionary Unit for South African English,1996–2026.

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle English

Adjective

white

  1. alternative form ofwhit

Adjective

white

  1. inflection ofwhit:
    1. weaksingular
    2. strong/weakplural

Quotations

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