Etymology
Origin of whiteness
before 1000; Middle English whitenes, Old English hwītnes. See white, -ness
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He theorises that inequality exists in a nation founded on pro-black, pan-African principles because a deference for whiteness was hard-wired into the region, long before independence.
From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026
"Once you go inside the continent, there is nothing. It's just a big, vast expanse of whiteness and there is no life," Tordeur said.
From Barron's • Nov. 1, 2025
Even when it doesn’t affect the plot directly, it’s the canvas the story is painted on, its whiteness of an intensity not otherwise seen on the screen, except in starship hallways.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 9, 2025
Their non-Jewishness, their non-otherness, their whiteness, their musical career, and their father’s birthplace—in a region that changed nationalities but ended up in Italy—enabled the family’s relatively smooth immigration process.
From Slate • Jan. 26, 2025
Laila sees her panicked eyes, the whiteness of her palms as they slap and push against the sheet.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
