Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The achromatic color of maximum lightness; the color of objects that reflect nearly all light of all visible wavelengths; the complement or antagonist of black, the other extreme of the neutral gray series. Although typically a response to maximum stimulation of the retina, the perception of white appears always to depend on contrast.
- noun The white or nearly white part, as.
- noun The albumen of an egg.
- noun The white part of an eyeball.
- noun A blank or unprinted area, as of an advertisement.
- noun One that is white or nearly white, as.
- noun Pieces of laundry having a white or nearly white color.
- noun White trousers or a white outfit of a special nature.
- noun The white dress uniform of the US Navy or Coast Guard.
- noun A white wine.
- noun A white pigment.
- noun A white breed, species, or variety of animal.
- noun Any of various butterflies of the subfamily Pierinae, characteristically having chiefly white wings often with black markings.
- noun A member of a racial group having light-colored skin, especially when of European origin and in some classifications also when of Middle Eastern or North African origin.
- noun Products of a white color, such as flour, salt, and sugar.
- noun The white or light-colored pieces, as in chess.
- noun The player using these pieces.
- noun The outermost ring of an archery target.
- noun A hit in this ring.
- noun Medicine Leukorrhea.
- noun A member of a conservative or counterrevolutionary faction, especially one opposing the Bolsheviks in the Russian civil war.
- adjective Being of the color white; devoid of hue, as new snow.
- adjective Approaching the color white, as.
- adjective Weakly colored; almost colorless; pale.
- adjective Pale gray; silvery and lustrous.
- adjective Bloodless; blanched.
- adjective Light or whitish in color or having light or whitish parts. Used with animal and plant names.
- adjective Of or belonging to a racial group of people having light-colored skin, especially when of European origin, and in some classifications also when of Middle Eastern or North African origin.
- adjective Habited in white.
- adjective Accompanied by or mantled with snow.
- adjective Incandescent.
- adjective Intensely heated; impassioned.
- adjective Of or relating to a conservative or counterrevolutionary faction, especially one opposing the Bolsheviks in the Russian civil war.
- adjective With milk added. Used of tea or coffee.
- adjective Archaic Unsullied; pure.
- transitive verb Printing To cover or make illegible with white coloring. Often used with out.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To grow white; whiten.
- To make white.
- To make pale or pallid.
- Synonyms See
whiten . - noun Any one of several white pierid butterflies, as the great southern white, Pontia motivate, the checkered white, P. protodice, the gray-veined white, Pieris napi, or the cabbage-butterfly, P. rapæ.
- noun In milling, the trade-name of flour made from the whitest and finest part of the wheat and free from all the outer coats.
- noun Same as
bloom , 6 . - A dialectal form of
thwite . Comparewhittle fromthwittle . - Of the color of pure snow or any powder of material transmitting all visible rays without sensible absorption; transmitting and so reflecting to the eye all the rays of the spectrum combined in the same proportions as in the impinging light, and thus, as seen in sunlight, conveying the same impression to the eye as sunlight of moderate intensity; not tinged or tinted with any of the proper colors or their compounds; snowy: the opposite of
black or dark. - Pale; pallid; bloodless, as from fear or cowardice.
- Free from spot or guilt; pure; clean; stainless.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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When people squint and say, Scott, you are a white guy, I peel off a shoe and sock and show them what my untanned skin looks like; "Oh, *white* guy."
Obama Census Choice: African-American Steven Barnes 2010
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If the term ˜white™ stands for its suppositum, it refers to a thing that is white or to ˜that which is white™, but if it stands for the quality or form, it refers to the whiteness inhering in that which is white, rather than to the thing in which it inheres.
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Hence white horse, the extension of ˜white horse™, is not the same as (identical to) horse, the extension of ˜horse™.
School of Names Fraser, Chris 2005
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A denominative term such as ˜white™ signifies by imposition a substance that is white, but it signifies by representation the whiteness inhering in the substance.
Mental Representation in Medieval Philosophy Lagerlund, Henrik 2004
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His most famous line, A white horse is not a horse, deals with the important distinction between horse, white, and white horse.
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The blond-haired, blue-eyed white man has taught you and me to worship a _white_ Jesus, and to shout and sing and pray to this God that's _his_ God, the white man's God.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X X, Malcolm, 1925-1965 1964
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Prefix to the following nouns several adjectives expressing qualities, and then make complete sentences by _asserting_ the same qualities. white | Chalk _is white_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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Prefix to the following nouns several adjectives expressing qualities, and then make complete sentences by _asserting_ the same qualities. white | Chalk _is white_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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Enemies: Sucking insects forming white downy patches on the bark and twigs, the _white pine weevil_, a boring insect, and the _white pine blister rust_, a fungus, are among its principal enemies.
Studies of Trees Jacob Joshua Levison
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T.J. [Footnote 7: Forster, the translator of this work, annihilates the argument for the settlement of the Welsh derived from the word "penguin" signifying "white head," by the fact of the bird in question having a _black_, not a _white_ head!] _Collar of SS.
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Carlo Rovelli published a new book about white holes, which are like black holes reversed in time: You can only leave them, and never enter them.
Let a Hundred Mechanisms Bloom. Spencer Wright 2023
baihu commented on the word white
I like it!
October 25, 2008
bilby commented on the word white
Caucasoid race?
October 25, 2008
smeggo commented on the word white
A contest of running speed around the Caucasus mountains.
October 25, 2008