white
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
The lightest color, like fresh snow.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wytIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwaɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The lightest color, like fresh snow.
The color of snow or milk; the color of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
usually in the plural
Trousers made of flannel or gabardine or tweed or white cloth
A person of European descent with light-colored skin.
The enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
United States educator who in 1865 (with Ezra Cornell) founded Cornell University and served as its first president (1832-1918)
adjective
Relatively light or pale in colour.
sometimes capitalized
Of or relating to Caucasians (people with white complexion and European ancestry).
Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
sometimes capitalized
Of or relating to Europeans or those of European descent, regardless if their skin has cool or warm undertones.
Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
Of or belonging to a racial group having light skin coloration
“Voting patterns within the white population.”
verb
transitive
To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: the lightest color, like fresh snow.
Used this way, white is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- light , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use white
- “Voting patterns within the white population.”adjective
- “She separated the whites from the yolks of several eggs.”noun
- “As white as fresh snow.”adjective
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.