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

“I don’t think I’ve read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well,” Doyle said, adding that in “Flesh,” “Every word matters; the spaces between the words matter.”

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 11, 2025

It’s more so just seeing that there’s a real white space for the audience and that there’s really no destination for women.

From Slate • Sep. 14, 2024

But in the Hinckley shooting, there was no white space.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell