white – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of white

Adjective: white

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativewhiter
Superlativewhitest

Perifrastic

Comparativemore white
Superlativemost white

Sample Sentences

  • Write in black ink on white paper.
  • white as the whitest lily on a stream. [c. 1878, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Holidays:]
  • While some of the more exotic varieties are becoming more popular with nationwide growers, such as the pale pinkish white pineberry, local farms will frequently plant a few different varieties to best suit their region. [2022 May 9, Casey Barber, “Strawberry season has arrived. Here are tips for enjoying spring’s sweetest treat”, in CNN, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2022:]
  • […]more white corporations cognizant of the mounting purchasing power of the Negro consumer, have Negro representatives in the field[…]. [1949, Wendell P. Alston, “The Green Book”, in The Negro Motorist Green Book, New York: Victor H. Green, published 1949, page 3:]
  • Ms. Ringwald finds a few things about these films regrettable. One thing she found "significantly disturbing," she wrote, "was how white the films are." [2004 May 9, Michael Joseph Gross, “When the Losers Ruled in Teenage Movies”, in New York Times:]
  • If you're from Africa, why are you white? [2004, Tina Fey, Mean Girls, spoken by Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried):]
  • “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.” [2025 December 21, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, quoting JD Vance, “Vance Refuses to Take Sides in G.O.P. Fight Over Bigotry”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:]
  • white drinking fountain
  • white hospital
  • white wine
  • white grapes
  • white birch
  • Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!" [1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):]
  • Why should the birthplace of the gods in ancient Egyptian times align with the birthplace of the White Lions in our times? [2010, Linda Tucker, “Gold: Subterranean Sun” (chapter 21), in Mystery of the White Lions: Children of the Sun God, Hay House, page 218:]
  • The white pieces in this set are in fact made of light green glass.
  • Consequently, in the initial position the white pieces and pawns are placed on the first and second ranks; the black pieces and pawns on the eighth and seventh ranks. [2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, page 21:]
  • a white monk
  • White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear. [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:]
  • 'The preacher had not proceeded far in his sermon,' said the man, ' before I thought him the whitest man I ever saw. My hat was instantly taken off and thrown under the seat, and I found myself listening with the most profound attention.' [1837, M. Huxley, in Timothy Mather Cooley, Sketches of the life and character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, A. M., for many years pastor of a church in Rutland, Vt., and late in Granville, New-York, page 73]
  • ... the parson, [… [1867, Mark Twain, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches, George Routledge and Sons, page 36:]
  • ... Rayner seems powerful anxious to get you on the paper. A good fellow is Rayner; as white a man as I ever knew; and he has as many old friends as would make a good-sized city. [1877, Walter Besant, James Rice, The Golden Butterfly, page 218:]
  • "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^([sic])."
  • "You're white," said Dan, as Harvey regained the deck, flushed to the tips of his ears. [1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:]
  • No whiter page than Addison's remains. / He from the taste obscene reclaims our youth, / And sets the passions on the side of Truth, [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:]
  • “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.” [1901, Hamlin Garland, Her Mountain Lover, page 51:]
  • "I meant to act white by you," he answered. [1913, Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, Penguin, →ISBN, page 155:]
  • He's a fine fellow, this Gabriel Stanton, a white man all through [1916, Julia Frankau, Twilight:]
  • ‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’ [1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 12:]
  • Even decency has been regarded as a white or Christian attribute, as is evidenced by the expression "that's very white of you" [1976, United Church of Christ, A.D., number 1, page 34:]
  • Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this. [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]:]
  • On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life. [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:]
  • I am his white boy, and will not be gulled. [c. 1626, John Ford, Tis Pity She's a Whore:]
  • 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. [1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 163:]
  • 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. [2012, Mary Lou Heiss, Robert J. Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook, →ISBN:]
  • Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; ☛ = "BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX"
  • a white Christmas
  • a white Easter
  • 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. [2015 August 31, Albrecht Classen, Handbook of Medieval Culture, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, →ISBN:]

Adjectives inflected like white

serene, severe, secure, sedate, wheelie, simple, complete, fulsome, sprightlie, discrete, plosive, bizarre, brusque, brittle, wholesome, sincere, shystie, loveable, prophane, terrible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. 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”).
2. Cognates
3. * West Frisian wyt
4. * Dutch wit
5. * German weiß
6. * German weiss
7. * Norwegian Bokmål hvit
8. * Norwegian Nynorsk kvit
9. * Swedish vit
10. * Danish hvid
11. * Lithuanian šviẽsti (“to gleam”), šviesa (“light”)
12. * Old Church Slavonic свѣтъ (světŭ, “light”), свѣтьлъ (světĭlŭ, “clear, bright”)
13. * Persian سفید (sefid, “white”), Persian سپید (sepid, “white”)
14. * Avestan 𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬙𐬀 (spaēta, “white”)
15. * Sanskrit श्वेत (śvetá, “white, bright”) See: Dutch Adjectives 'wit', German Adjectives 'weiß', German Adjectives 'weiss', Swedish Adjectives 'vit'.

Verbs referencing "white"

Gothic Adjectives 𐍈𐌴𐌹𐍄𐍃.