white space

American  

noun

1. the unprinted area of a piece of printing, as of a poster or newspaper page, or of a portion of a piece of printing, as of an advertisement; blank space.

   White space is as effective in a layout as type.

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Etymology

Origin of white space

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

"They didn't represent who I was going to school with, it was a very white space."

From BBC • Jan. 24, 2026

Miles said that when he arrived in China, “We thought, let’s take the white space that Costco would take if they were here.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025

In August 2007, an endless white space appeared on Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr., into which stepped a man wearing an orange track suit and a fuzzy orange hat.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 8, 2024

But Ramaswamy is a brown guy in a traditionally white space.

From Slate • Nov. 9, 2023

At the place beside the beginning of the forest path where once there had been a clear white space, there were six lines of black writing.

From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda