white
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wīt
ipa: /waɪt/
note: without the wine–whine merger
enpr: hwīt
ipa: /ʍaɪt/
note: without the wine–whine merger
rhymes: -aɪt
homophone: wight
homophone: Wight
homophone: wite (wine–whine merger)
Forms: form: whites
form: whight
form: whyte
form: whyght
form: White
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
* 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”).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 117:
glosses: The color of snow or milk; the color of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
text: The War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters, particularly whites who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and affirmative action.
ref: 2012, Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, →ISBN, page 54:
synonyms: word: ang moh
word: Angrez
word: balanda
word: béké
word: bule
word: Caucasian
word: cracker
word: cumskin
word: farang
word: firangi
word: gringo
word: gora
word: gussuk
word: gweilo
word: haole
word: honky
word: hoogie
word: hoojah
word: ice monkey
word: ivory
word: joganosh
word: kabloona
word: laowai
word: leucoderm
word: mayo
word: mayonnaise face
word: melanin-challenged
word: migaloo
word: mlungu
word: mzungu
word: ofay
word: oyinbo
word: paddy
word: Pakeha
word: paleface
word: pigskin
word: pinky
word: roundeye
word: saltine
raw_tags: for cracker
word: snow bunny
word: toubab
word: umlungu
word: vazaha
word: white
word: white bread
word: white devil
word: whiteface
word: white man
word: whitey
word: wigger
word: wonderbread
word: Yankee
glosses: A person of European descent with light-colored skin.
glosses: Any butterfly of the subfamily Pierinae in the family Pieridae.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1977, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, in Billy Joel (music), The Stranger:
text: 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.
ref: 2014, Maximillian Potter, Shadows in the Vineyard:
glosses: White wine.
glosses: White coffee
glosses: White bread
glosses: Any object or substance that is of the color white.
The albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
examples: text: You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening.
ref: 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:
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: Any object or substance that is of the color white.
The sclera, white of the eye.
topics: ball-games
billiards
games
hobbies
lifestyle
pool
snooker
sports
glosses: Any object or substance that is of the color white.
The cue ball in cue games.
examples: text: I've got to hit the streets; I've got to move this white.
ref: 2004, “On The Run”, Kanye West (music), performed by Bump J ft. Rick James, Atlantic:
text: Ten grand a week we were clearing: base, white, meth, weed, anything. I can get you anything to get you high.
ref: 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):
text: We was flyin' up O with white, we was buildin' lines, now it's clothing lines
ref: 2024, “Entrapreneur”, performed by Central Cee:
glosses: Any object or substance that is of the color white.
Cocaine.
synonyms: word: benzoylmethylecgonine
word: blow
word: Bolivian marching powder
word: booger sugar
word: boots
word: California corn flakes
word: charlie
word: ching
word: coke
word: corinne
word: crystals
word: flake
word: girl
word: hard white
word: marching powder
word: nose candy
word: nose powder
word: party powder
word: powder
word: rock
word: rocks
word: slim
word: sniff
word: snow
word: snuff
word: toot
word: wash
word: white
word: white girl
word: white lady
word: yay
word: yayo
word: yola
glosses: Any object or substance that is of the color white.
The snow- or ice-covered "green" in snow golf.
examples: text: Venice white
glosses: Any object or substance that is of the color white.
A white pigment.
examples: text: 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).
ref: 1952, Columbia River and Tributaries, Northwestern United States, United States Government Printing Office, page 3764:
glosses: Any object or substance that is of the color white.
A white bean.
examples: text: 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.
ref: 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]:
topics: archery
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1594, Hugh Plat, chapter 38, in The Jewell House of Art and Nature, London, page 42:
text: […] the a. b. d. g. o. p. q. &c. […] must be made with equal whites.
ref: 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 18:
text: She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the inside whites of the letters registered on her mind.
ref: 1931, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in Police at the Funeral, Penguin, published 1939, page 157:
glosses: The enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1909, Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, page 514:
text: 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.
ref: 1909 August 12, “Ostrich Feathers of Tripoli”, in Neenah Daily Times, volume 53, number 8,451, Neenah, Wis.; Menasha, Wis., column 5:
text: 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.
ref: 1910 October 30, The Arizona Republican, volume XXI, number 161, Phoenix, Ariz., page 9:
text: 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.
ref: 1923, South African Law Reports. Cape Provincial Division: Decisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa (Cape of Good Hope Provincial Decision)., page 532:
synonyms: prime
glosses: A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
examples: text: In this position, white has an opportunity to make a good move.
text: 1...Qd3 2 Ne1 Nd2! wins since 3 Nxd3 Rxf1 mate while 3 Qxc7+ Kg6 only delays the end. The best White can do is 3 Qc3+ Qxc3 4 Rxc3 Rxe1 when Black also wins the Bf1 and will be two pieces up.
ref: 2023 January 13, Leonard Barden, “Chess: Carlsen takes on young guns at Wijk as world champion eyes record”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2023:
topics: board-games
chess
games
qualifier: board games
glosses: The person playing with the white set of pieces.
Synonyms: word: bright
word: chalky
word: flashy
word: frosted
word: light
word: milky
word: pale
word: pearly
word: shiny
word: silvery
word: snowy
word: white
Hypernyms: word: color
word: shade
Meronyms: word: Caucasian
Derived terms: egg white
flake white
flat white
nonwhite
non-white
off-white
offwhite
titanium white
wapanese
whiteless
wigger
Related terms: word: red
word: orange
word: yellow
word: green
word: blue
word: violet