white

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English[edit]

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A white car
Six chess pieces, four white and two black
A human eye with white
A Pieris butterfly
A glass of white wine
An egg yolk surrounded by the egg white
A pile of white: cocaine

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English whit, hwit, from Old English hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz (whence also West Frisian wyt, Dutch wit, German weiß, Norwegian hvit), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweytos (“bright; shine”). Compare Lithuanian šviẽsti (“to gleam”), šviesa (“light”), Old Church Slavonic свѣтъ (světŭ, “light”), свѣтьлъ (světĭlŭ, “clear, bright”), Albanian vizull (“ shine”), Avestan [script?] spaēta (“white”), Sanskrit श्वेत (śvetá, “white, bright”).

Adjective[edit]

white (comparative whiter, superlative whitest)

  1. Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
    Write in black ink on white paper.
    • Longfellow
      white as the whitest lily on a stream.
  2. Of the Caucasian race.
    • 1949, Wendell P. Alston, “The Green Book”, in The Negro Motorist Green Book, edition 1949, New York: Victor H. Green, page 3:
      […] more white corporations cognizant of the mounting purchasing power of the Negro consumer, have Negro representatives in the field […]
  3. (chiefly historical) Designated for use by Caucasians.
    white drinking fountain; white hospital
  4. Relatively light or pale in colour.
    white wine; white grapes
  5. Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
    • Byron
      Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"
  6. (of coffee) Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
  7. (board games, chess) The standard denomination of the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the white set, no matter what the actual colour.
    The white pieces in this set are in fact made of light green glass.
  8. Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
    • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIII:
      at the fourthe day aftir evynsonge he com to a whyght abbay; and there was he resceyved with grete reverence [...].
  9. Honourable, fair; decent.
    • Dryden
      White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
    • Alexander Pope
      No whiter page than Addison's remains.
    • 1901, Hamlin Garland, Her Mountain Lover, page 51:
      “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 mighty white of you, old man, but I don’t know where I shall make down.”
    • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin 2010, p. 12:
      ‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’
    • 1976, United Church of Christ, A.D., number 1, page 34: 
      Even decency has been regarded as a white or Christian attribute, as is evidenced by the expression "that's very white of you"
  10. (of a person or skin) Lacking coloration from ultraviolet light.
  11. Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair; hoary.
    • Shakespeare
      Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.
  12. (archaic) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.
  13. (obsolete) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
    • Chaucer
      Come forth, my white spouse.
    • Ford
      I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.
  14. (politics) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
    • 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society 2010, p. 163:
      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 to white reaction.

Antonyms[edit]

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

white (plural whites)

  1. The color/colour of snow or milk; the colour of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
  2. A Caucasian person.
  3. The albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
  4. (anatomy) The sclera, white of the eye.
  5. Any butterfly of the Pieris genus.
  6. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The cue ball in cue games.
  7. (countable and uncountable) White wine.
  8. (slang) Street name for cocaine.
  9. (archery) The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
    • Shakespeare
      'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.
  10. A white pigment.
    Venice white

Translations[edit]

white wine — see white wine

Derived terms[edit]

terms derived from "white"

See also[edit]

Verb[edit]

white (third-person singular simple present whites, present participle whiting, simple past and past participle whited)

  1. To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
    Whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of […] uncleanness. — Matthew xxiii. 27.
    So as no fuller on earth can white them. — Mark ix. 3.

Statistics[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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