Home > Antonyms > Antonyms for white

Antonyms for white

Grammar : Adj
Spell : hwahyt, wahyt
Phonetic Transcription : ʰwaɪt, waɪt

Definition of white

Origin :
  • Old English hwit, from Proto-Germanic *khwitaz (cf. Old Saxon and Old Frisian hwit, Old Norse hvitr, Dutch wit, Old High German hwiz, German weiß, Gothic hveits), from PIE *kwintos/*kwindos "bright" (cf. Sanskrit svetah "white;" Old Church Slavonic sviteti "to shine," svetu "light;" Lithuanian sviesti "to shine," svaityti "to brighten").
  • As a surname, originally with reference to fair hair or complexion, it is one of the oldest in English, being well-established before the Conquest. Meaning "morally pure" was in Old English. Association with royalist causes is late 18c. Slang sense of "honorable, fair" is 1877, American English. The racial sense (adj.) of "of those races (chiefly European or of European extraction) characterized by light complexion" is first recorded c.1600. The noun in this sense ("white man, person of a race distinguished by light complexion") is from 1670s. White supremacy attested from 1902; white flight is from 1967.
  • White heat "state of intense or extreme emotion" first recorded 1839. White lie is attested from 1741. White Christmas is attested from 1857. White House at the U.S. presidential residence is recorded from 1811. White water "river rapids" is recorded from 1580s. White Russian "language of Byelorussia" is recorded from 1850; the mixed drink is from c.1978. White-collar as an adjective is from 1921; white-collar crime attested by 1964 (there is a white-collar criminaloids from 1934). Astronomical white dwarf is from 1924.
  • adj extremely pale; lacking color
Example sentences :
  • Their names often signified some quality of a horse; as Leucippus, a white horse, &c.
  • Extract from : « Philothea » by Lydia Maria Child
  • Found his camp and a white gum marked with a broad arrow, but no water.
  • Extract from : « Explorations in Australia » by John Forrest
  • Shot six ducks; great numbers were in the river, also white cockatoos.
  • Extract from : « Explorations in Australia » by John Forrest
  • She found a friend in a white lady, who knew her story and helped her on her way.
  • Extract from : « Harriet, The Moses of Her People » by Sarah H. Bradford
  • Marked a white gum-tree F 20, being 20th camp from Geraldton.
  • Extract from : « Explorations in Australia » by John Forrest
  • Meantime a white film of fog spread down the bay from the northward.
  • Extract from : « Malbone » by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
  • He wished to be dressed completely in white, as a symbol of his innocence.
  • Extract from : « Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 » by Various
  • The walls were done in white with a faint blue and silver stripe.
  • Extract from : « Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus » by Jessie Graham Flower
  • And we'll say nothing to Dick until we've got it all in black and white.
  • Extract from : « Viviette » by William J. Locke
  • We will work on this in the White House, in the Cabinet agencies.
  • Extract from : « United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches » by Various

Synonyms for white

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019