English Explanatory Dictionary

white

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
  2. Of or relating to Europeans or those of European descent, regardless if their skin has cool or warm undertones.
  3. Of or relating to Caucasians (people with white complexion and European ancestry).
  4. By U.S. Census Bureau definition, of or relating to people hailing from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
  5. Designated for use by Caucasians.
  6. Relatively light or pale in colour.
  7. Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
  8. Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; not tanned.
  9. With leucism.
  10. Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
  11. The standard denomination of the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the white set, no matter what the actual colour.
  12. Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
noun
  1. The color of snow or milk; the color of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
  2. A person of European descent with light-colored skin.
  3. Any butterfly of the subfamily Pierinae in the family Pieridae.
  4. White wine.
  5. White coffee
  6. Ellipsis of white bread
  7. Any object or substance that is of the color white.
  8. The albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
  9. The sclera, white of the eye.
  10. The cue ball in cue games.
  11. Cocaine.
  12. The snow- or ice-covered "green" in snow golf.
verb
  1. To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
name
  1. A common British and Irish surname transferred from the nickname.
  2. A locale in the United States:
  3. A minor city in Bartow County, Georgia; named for its first postmaster.
  4. A city in South Dakota; named for its first European settler.
  5. An unincorporated community in Washington; named for a Washington state judge.
  6. A ghost town in Missouri; named for a local mining official.
adj
  1. Alternative letter-case form of white (“of or relating to white complexion or Europeans”).
noun
  1. Alternative letter-case form of white (“European”).
  2. An anticommunist who fought against the Reds during the Russian Civil War; the term is mostly associated with monarchist forces.
  3. The player moving the white pieces.

Pronunciation

/ˈwaɪt/ [ˈwaɪ̯t] en-us-white.ogg en-uk-white.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Exilexi-white.wav /ˈʍʌɪt/ [ˈw̥ʌɪ̯t] /ˈʍaɪt/ En-White.ogg

Word forms

white whiter more white whitest most white whight whyte whyght whites whiting whited Wight

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English whit, hwit, from Old English hwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweydós, a byform of *ḱweytós (“bright; shine”). Cognates * West Frisian wyt *Dutch wit * German weiß * German weiss * Norwegian Bokmål hvit * Norwegian Nynorsk kvit * Swedish vit * Danish hvid * Lithuanian šviẽsti (“to gleam”), šviesa (“light”) * Old Church Slavonic свѣтъ (světŭ, “light”), свѣтьлъ (světĭlŭ, “clear, bright”) * Persian سفید (sefid, “white”), Persian سپید (sepid, “white”) * Avestan 𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬙𐬀 (spaēta, “white”) * Sanskrit श्वेत (śvetá, “white, bright”)

Synonyms

fair pale bright chalky flashy frosted light milky pearly shiny silvery snowy white abelungu ang moh Angrez balanda béké bule cac Caucasian cornstarch crusader cracker cumskin European farang firangi gringo gora gussuk gweilo haole honky hoogie hoojah ice monkey ivory joganosh kabloona laowai leucoderm mayo mayo monkey mayonnaise face melanin-challenged migaloo mlungu mzungu ofay oyinbo paddy Pakeha paleface pigskin pinky roundeye saltine snow bunny snow roach toubab

Antonyms

black nonwhite unwhite tanned

Related words

whitebeam whiten whiteness whiteness studies whitish red orange yellow green blue violet blanco leucite leukoma leukosis Sauvignon blanc Svetambara terra alba

Derived words

angry white male angry white man antimony white antique white anti-white Argentine black and white tegu Bath white Berlin white big white chief big white telephone black-and-white black and white black and white Helen black-and-white ruffed lemur black and white tegu black-and-white television black and white village black and white warbler black-or-white black-veined white blacky-white bleed white blue-and-white blue-white screen body in white cabbage white Californian white sage chalk-white Chester County White Chester White China white Chinese white Chinese white dolphin Chinese white pear Chinese white radish Cremnitz white Crems white dead white European male eastern white pine egg-white European white elm fade to white floral white flying white French white giant white radish greater white-fronted goose great white great white egret great white heron great white hope great white rat great white shark green-veined white green-white-checker green-white-checkered green-white-chequer green-white-chequered hard white hoist the white flag
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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