# white
## English
### Alternative forms

* whight, whyte, whyght (obsolete)
* White (race-related)

### 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”).
* West Frisian wyt
* Dutch wit
* German weiß
* German weiss
* Norwegian Bokmål hvit
* Norwegian Nynorsk kvit
* 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”).

### Pronunciation

* enPR: wīt, IPA: /waɪt/
* (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hwīt, IPA: /ʍaɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -aɪt
* Homophones: wight, Wight, wite (wine–whine merger)

### Adjective

white (comparative whiter or more white, superlative whitest or most white)
* Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
    Antonyms: black, nonwhite, unwhite
    Write in black ink on white paper.
** c. 1878, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Holidays:white as the whitest lily on a stream.
* (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Europeans or those of European descent, regardless if their skin has cool or warm undertones.
* (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Caucasians (people with white complexion and European ancestry):.
** 1949, Wendell P. Alston, “The Green Book”, in The Negro Motorist Green Book, New York: Victor H. Green, published 1949, page 3:[…] more white 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”, in New York Times‎:Ms. Ringwald finds a few things about these films regrettable. One thing she found "significantly disturbing," she wrote, "was how white the films are."
* (sometimes capitalized) By U.S. Census Bureau definition, of or relating to people hailing from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
* (chiefly historical) Designated for use by Caucasians.
    white drinking fountain
    white hospital
* Relatively light or pale in colour.
    white wine
    white grapes
    white birch
* Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
** 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"
* (of a person or skin) Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; not tanned.
    Synonyms: fair, pale
    Antonym: tanned
* (of an animal) Affected by leucism.
* (of coffee or tea) Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
    Antonym: black
* (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.
* Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
    a white monk
* Honourable, fair; decent.
** 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Second Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
** 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." "You're white," 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 in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 194:No whiter 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, 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.”
** 1916, Julia Frankau, Twilight:He's a fine fellow, this Gabriel Stanton, a white man all through
** 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 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"
* Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair; hoary.
** c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.
* (archaic) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
** 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.
* (obsolete) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
** c. 1626, John Ford, Tis Pity She's a Whore:I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.
* (politics) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
** 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 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.
* (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 a white tea, with the richness and lingering finish of a finely crafted black tea.
* (typography) Not containing characters; see white space.
* (typography) Said of a symbol or character outline, not solid, not filled with color. Compare black (“said of a character or symbol filled with color”).
    Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; ☛ = "BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX"
* Characterised by the presence of snow.
    a white Christmas
    a white Easter
* (of a set of armor) Alwhite, pertaining to white 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

* American white birch
* American white ibis
* angry white male
* angry white man
* antimony white
* antique white
* anti-white
* Argentine black and white tegu
* Australian white ibis
* 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
* China white
* Chinese white
* Chinese white dolphin
* Chinese white pear
* Chinese white radish
* code white
* Cremnitz white
* Crems white
* dead white European male
* eastern white pine
* egg-white
* European white elm
* fade to white
* flat white
* floral white
* flying white
* French white
* giant white radish
* greater white-fronted goose
* great white (Carcharodon carcharias)
* 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
* honorary white
* in black and white
* indigo white
* Kremnitz white
* Krems white
* Land of the Long White Cloud
* large white (Pieris brassicae)
* lead white
* lesser white-fronted goose
* lethal white syndrome
* like white on rice
* lily-white
* little white lie
* long white radish
* man in white
* marbled white
* mark-white
* mark with a white stone
* mean white
* men in white coats
* Mexican white pine
* milk-white
* missing white girl syndrome
* missing white woman syndrome
* multiple evanescent white dot syndrome
* Navajo white
* non-white
* normally white
* Nottingham white
* offwhite
* off-white
* off white
* Oregon white oak
* Panamanian white-faced capuchin
* Paris white
* pass up like a white chip
* pearl white
* permanent white
* picture white
* play the white man
* poor white trash
* pro-white
* Prussian white
* raise the white flag
* Russian winter white dwarf hamster
* show the white feather
* show the white flag
* silver white
* silvery-white
* slate white
* small white
* Snow White
* snow-white
* snow white
* sounds about white
* Spanish white
* swamp white oak
* talk to God on the big white telephone
* talk to Ralph on the big white telephone
* that's mighty white of you
* the other white meat
* Vale of White Horse
* Venetian white
* vibration white finger
* Vienna white
* visual white
* wash a blackamoor white
* wash a negro white
* water-white
* water white
* wave the white flag
* white adipose tissue
* white admiral
* white alder
* white alkali
* white America
* white amur
* white-ant
* white ant
* white antelope
* white-anting
* white appliance
* white area
* white arm
* white arsenic
* white arsenic oxide
* white as a ghost
* white as a sheet
* white as driven snow
* white ash
* white as snow
* white as the driven snow
* White Australia Policy
* white-backed
* white-backed black tit
* white bacon
* whitebait
* white balance
* White Ball
* white-ball
* white ball
* White Ball (place)
* white bass
* White Beach
* white-beaked
* white-beaked dolphin
* white beaksedge
* white beak-sedge
* white bear
* whitebeard
* white-bearded
* white-bearded antshrike
* white bear problem
* white beech
* white-bellied
* white-bellied nothura
* white-bellied sea eagle
* white-bellied tit
* white belt
* white-billed
* white-billed diver
* white birch
* white blood
* white blood cell
* white-blue-white
* white-blue-white flag
* whiteboard
* white book
* white-box
* white-box testing
* white boy
* white boy wasted
* white brass
* whitebread
* white-bread
* white bread
* white bream
* white-breasted
* white-breasted hawk
* white-breasted nuthatch
* white-breasted sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster)
* white-breasted waterhen
* white-browed
* white-browed guan
* white-browed tit
* white-browed woodswallow
* white bryony (Bryonia alba)
* white cabbage
* white campion
* white cane
* white cap
* whitecap
* white carbohydrate
* white carbs
* white card
* white cedar
* white cell
* white cheese polypore
* white chili
* white chip
* white chocolate
* white choker
* white Christmas
* white Christmas slice
* white cider
* White City
* White Cliff
* white cloud
* White Cloud
* white clover
* white coal
* white-coat
* white coat
* whitecoat
* white coat effect
* white-coater
* white coat high blood pressure
* white-coat hypertension
* white coat hypertension
* white coat rule
* white coat syndrome
* white cockatoo
* white coffee
* white collar
* white-collar
* white-collar boxing
* white-collar crime
* white-collar criminal
* white-collar work
* white-collar worker
* White Colne
* white copper
* white corn
* white corpuscle
* white crane
* white crane style
* white crappie (Pomoxis annularis)
* white-crested
* white-crested spadebill
* white croaker
* white crop
* white cross
* white-crowned
* white-crowned plover
* white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
* white currant
* white-currant
* whitedamp
* White Deer
* white devil
* white dirt
* white dot syndrome
* white dwarf
* white-ear
* white-eared
* white-eared parakeet
* white Easter
* white-edged
* white-edged hunter hawkmoth
* white eel
* white elephant
* white elephant sale
* White émigré
* white English bulldog
* White Ensign
* white-eye
* white-eyed attila
* white-eyed gull
* White Eyes
* whiteface
* white-faced
* white-faced capuchin monkey
* white-faced heron (Egretta novaehollandiae)
* white fat
* white feather
* white fever
* white fir
* whitefish
* white-fish
* white flag
* white-fleshed
* white-fleshed sweet potato
* white flight
* white-flippered
* white-flippered penguin
* white flour
* whitefly
* white-footed
* white-footed fox
* white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)
* white fox
* white fragility
* white friar
* white-fringed
* white-fringed pyrausta moth
* white frog orchid
* white-fronted
* white-fronted goose
* white-fronted tit
* white frost
* white fuming nitric acid
* white-gaped
* white-gaped honeyeater
* white gas
* white gasoline
* white genocide
* white gentian
* white ginger
* white-girl
* white girl
* white-girl wasted
* white-glove
* white-glove building
* white-glove service
* white glove test
* white-glove test
* white goat
* white gold
* white goods
* white goosefoot
* white gourd
* white graft
* white grape
* white gravy
* white guilt white gum (Eucalyptus spp.)
* white gum poison
* white-haired
* Whitehall
* White Hall
* white-handed
* white-handed gibbon
* white-handedly
* white-handedness
* white handled knife
* White Hart Lane
* white hat
* white hawk
* white-headed
* white-headed babbler
* white-headed duck
* white-headed eagle
* white-heart
* white heat
* white henbane
* white herring
* white hog
* white hole
* white honeysuckle
* white hope
* White Horde
* white horse
* white hot
* white-hot
* White House
* white hunter
* white inflation theory
* white information
* white iron
* White Island
* White Karen
* white knight
* white-knight
* white-knuckle
* white knuckle
* white knuckle ride
* white-knuckle ride
* White Kulaman
* white-label
* white label
* white lady
* white lady tears
* white land
* white lash
* white-lash
* white latten
* white lead
* white lead ore
* white leather
* white leg
* white-letter
* white-letter hairstreak
* white lettuce
* white lie
* white light
* white lightning
* white lime
* white line
* white line disease
* white-lined sphinx
* white line fever
* white lion
* white-lipped
* white-lipped peccary
* white-lipped snail
* white list
* white-livered
* white livered
* white lives matter
* white lobster
* whitely
* white maggot
* white magic
* white magician
* white magick
* white man
* White man
* White Man
* white mangrove
* white man's burden
* white man's grave
* white margate
* white market
* white marlin
* white marriage
* white matter
* white meat
* white metal
* white mica
* white micrathena
* white millet
* white money
* white monkey
* White Mountain
* White Mountains
* white mulberry
* white muscle disease
* white musk
* white mustard (Sinapis alba)
* white-naped
* white-naped crane
* white-naped tit
* white-naped xenopsaris
* white nationalism
* white nationalist
* white nebula
* white-necked myna
* white negro
* white nigger
* white night
* white noddy
* white noise
* white-nosed
* white-nosed coati
* white nose syndrome
* white note
* White Notley
* white nougat
* white nutmeg pigeon
* white oak
* white oak tree
* white oakum
* white on rice
* white-on-white
* white-out
* white owl
* white pages
* white-paper
* white paper
* white party
* white pea bean
* white peace
* white pee
* white pepper
* white perch
* white petrolatum
* white phosphorus
* white picket fence
* white pickle
* white pie
* white pill
* white pine
* white pizza
* white plague
* White Plains
* white-plumed
* white-plumed honeyeater
* white-point
* white pointer
* white pomfret
* white popinac
* white poplar
* white-pot
* white potato
* white power
* white precipitate
* white pride
* white privilege
* white privileged
* white propaganda
* white pudding
* white pyrites
* white rabbit
* white rabbits
* white radio
* white radish
* white rainbow
* white rattlesnake root
* white rent
* white replacement theory
* White Revolution
* white rhino
* white rhinoceros
* white rhubarb
* white rice
* white rider
* White River
* white roe
* white room
* white rot
* whiter than white
* white-rumped
* white-rumped hawk
* white-rumped sandpiper
* White Rus
* White Russian
* white rust
* White Ruthenia
* whites
* white sage
* white sale
* white salmon
* white salt
* white sapote
* white sapphire
* white satin
* white sauce
* white saviorism
* white scavenger vulture
* white scour
* white screen of death
* White Sea
* white seaperch
* white shark
* white sheep
* white shield
* white-shirt
* white-shoe
* white-shoe firm
* white-shouldered
* white-shouldered antshrike
* white-shouldered black tit
* white-shouldered fairywren
* white-sick
* white-sided
* white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus spp.)
* White Sister
* white skin privilege
* white slave
* white slaver
* white slavery
* white-slaving
* white slaw
* white slime
* whitesmith
* white smoke
* white smoker
* white smoothie
* white snakeroot
* white snow
* white soda
* white sole
* white soul
* white space
* white Spanish broom
* white spirit
* white-spot
* white spot
* white-spot disease
* white spot syndrome
* white spruce
* white squall
* white steenbras
* white stick
* white stork
* white stuff
* white sturgeon
* white sugar
* White Sulphur Springs
* white supremacism
* white supremacist
* white-supremacist
* white supremacy
* white sweet potato
* white swelling
* white-tablecloth
* white-tablecloth restaurant
* white-tailed
* white-tailed blue flycatcher
* white-tailed deer
* white-tailed eagle
* white-tailed hawk
* white-tailed lapwing
* white-tailed plover
* white-tailed ptarmigan
* white-tailed sea eagle
* white-tailed shrike
* white tea
* white teak
* white tears
* white-telephone
* white telephone
* white tern
* white terror
* whitethroat
* white-throat
* white-throated
* white-throated dipper
* white-throated hawk
* white-throated kingfisher
* white-throated magpie-jay
* white-throated needletail
* white-throated rail
* white-throated robin
* white-throated sparrow
* white-throated tinamou
* White Thursday
* white-tie
* white tie
* white tiger
* white tin
* white-tip
* white tongue
* white top-hat transform
* whitetopia
* white trash
* white trashery
* white-trashery
* white-trashy
* white trashy
* white trillium
* white truffle
* white turmeric
* white turpentine
* white turtlehead
* white up
* white van man
* white van speakers
* white vinegar
* white vitriol
* white wagtail
* whitewall
* whitewall tire
* white walnut
* whitewash
* whitewater
* white-water
* white water
* white water lily
* whitewater rafting
* white-water rafting
* white water rafting
* white wedding
* white week
* white whale
* white willow
* white-winged
* white-winged black tit
* white-winged crossbill
* white-winged dove
* white-winged fairywren
* white-winged parakeet
* white-winged scoter
* white-winged tern
* white witch
* white wizard
* white wolf
* white woman tears
* white women's tears
* white women tears
* white worm
* white zinfandel
* white zone
* winter white Russian hamster
* wood white
* yt
* zinc white Related terms whitebeamwhitenwhitenesswhiteness studieswhitish

#### Descendants

* Bislama: waet
* Sranan Tongo: weti
** Aukan: weti
** Saramaccan: wéti
* Tok Pisin: wait
* → Japanese: ホワイト (howaito)
* white fella
** ⇒ Nyunga: wadjela
* white gin
** ⇒ Gamilaraay: waatyin
** ⇒ Ngiyambaa: wadjiin
** ⇒ Wiradjuri: waajin

#### Translations
### Noun

white (countable and uncountable, plural whites)
* The color of snow or milk; 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, page 117:Not only were the platforms tiled in white, the tunnels were painted white too - to prettify them, and make them less claustrophobic - and the Central proudly issued a postcard of its tunnel-whitening machine.
* A person of European descent with light-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 four whites, our rifles on our shoulders, walked between them and any danger coming from the woods.
** 2012, Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, →ISBN, page 54:The War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters, particularly whites who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and affirmative action.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:white person
* Any butterfly of the subfamily Pierinae in the family Pieridae.
* (countable and uncountable) White wine.
** 1977, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, in Billy Joel (music), The Stranger:A bottle of red, a bottle of white / 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, soft white while they gossip in the kitchen; old men drink strong, room-temperature red to get shellacked.
* (countable and uncountable) White coffee
* (countable) Any object or substance that is of the color white.
** The albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
** (anatomy) The sclera, white of the eye.
*** 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 203:You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening.
** (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The cue ball in cue games.
** (slang, US, UK) Cocaine.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus: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 this white.
*** 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 by Central Cee:We was flyin' up O with white, we was buildin' lines, now it's clothing lines
** The snow- or ice-covered "green" in snow golf.
** A white pigment.
    Venice white
** A white bean.
*** 1952, Columbia River and Tributaries, Northwestern United States, United States Government Printing Office, page 3764:Nearly two-thirds of the Idaho crop has been great northerns, one-sixth small reds, and the remainder small flat whites and pintos and seed for snap beans and baby limas (table 21).
* (archery) The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
** c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.
* The enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
** 1594, Hugh Plat, chapter 38, in The Jewell House of Art and Nature‎, London, page 42:Also it giueth a great grace to your writing, if the whites of certeine letters bee made of one equall bignesse with the o. supposing the same were all round, as the white of the b. of the a. p. y. v. w. x. q. d. g. and s.
** 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid‎, London: T. Passinger, page 18:[…] the a. b. d. g. o. p. q. &c. […] must be made with equal whites.
** 1931, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in Police at the Funeral‎, Penguin, published 1939, page 157:She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the inside whites of the letters registered on her mind.
* A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
    Synonym: prime
** 1909, Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, page 514:3.—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”, in Neenah Daily Times, volume 53, number 8,451, Neenah, Wis., Menasha, Wis., column 5:The usual kinds of ostrich feathers known to the trade come into the Tripoli market. These are whites, blacks, feminas, byocks, spadonas, boos, drabs and floss.
** 1910 October 30, The Arizona Republican, volume XXI, number 161, Phoenix, Ariz., page 9:Whites, primes, pound, $120 to $300 […] The whites 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)., page 532:This parcel included 286 lbs. of feathers known as whites, and 211 lbs. of feathers known as feminas. The whites are described as lot 12, and the feminas as lot 13.
* (board games, chess) The person playing with the white set of pieces.
    In this position, white has an opportunity to make a good move.

#### Derived terms

* egg white
* flake white
* flat white
* nonwhite
* non-white
* off-white
* offwhite
* titanium white
* wapanese
* whiteless
* wigger

#### Translations
### Verb

white (third-person singular simple present whites, present participle whiting, simple past and past participle whited)
* (transitive) To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 23:27:Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 9:3:so as no fuller on earth can white them
** 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 199:In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre.

#### Derived terms

* white out

### See also

* blanco
* leucite
* leukoma
* leukosis
* Sauvignon blanc
* Svetambara
* terra alba
Colors/Colours 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

* ↑ “white, n.”, in Dictionary of South African English, Makhanda, Eastern Cape: Dictionary Unit for South African English, 1996–2025.

### Further reading

* white on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Race on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Category:white on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

### Anagrams

* withe

## Middle English
### Adjective

white
* Alternative form of whit

### Adjective

white
* inflection of whit:
** weak singular
** strong/weak plural

### Quotations

* 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Marchauntes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:
    Come forth my white spouse