white space

American

noun

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.

Etymology

Origin of white space

First recorded in 1840–50

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.

See Examples For:

white space

“That’s a great example of white space that didn’t really exist for this company,” CEO Nicholas Fink said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 3, 2026

“There isn’t as much white space in life as there is in property and casualty.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026

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

From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2026

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

From Slate ● Nov. 9, 2023

I write words in the white space beside the sketch, but after ‘pond’ and ‘icy’ the only ones that’ll come are: ‘guilty,’ ‘complicated,’ ‘hidden,’ and ‘weak.’

From "Rules" by Cynthia Lord

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023