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Glite Dictionary
🏛️ White identity ❄️ White color 🕊️ Innocence
whiteness

whiteness

1 7.6
Being innocent and not knowing or doing wrong
  • noun
  • /ˈhwaɪtnəs/
  • Literature
translation icon : pureza
  • She asks nothing, demands nothing except a bit of whiteness in her life.

She asks nothing, demands nothing except a bit of whiteness in her life.

Examples

  • The state of whiteness was approached gradually and controversially.

    Academic text (1997)

  • And to bloody the whiteness of her clothes, her soul, and her youth.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • How shall ye keep the whiteness of your vow?

    Academic text (2016)

  • She stood on her toes and twirled, feeling her whiteness flame like a candle in the fading light.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The child's innocence and purity reflected in her whiteness made everyone around her smile.

  • In her eyes, there was a genuine whiteness that suggested she had never experienced deceit.

  • The community celebrated the whiteness of their traditions, which emphasized kindness and honesty.

Synonyms

innocence
vswhiteness
35 3.6

Being free from doing wrong or evil things

highlights moral purity without knowledge of wrong rather than just inexperience
purity
vswhiteness
  • Formal
34 3.9

The state of being without moral wrong or corruption

stresses innocence and lack of awareness of wrongdoing rather than neutrality
pureness
vswhiteness
1 4.0

Being morally good and not doing wrong

focuses on lacking knowledge of evil rather than only moral quality
sinlessness
vswhiteness
9.6

Being free from wrong and having an innocent heart

emphasizes lack of knowledge of evil rather than only absence of sin

Antonyms

guilt
187 2.7

Responsibility for a crime or other illegal action

corruption
36 4.6

A situation where people lose moral principles and act badly

How Pure

whiteness
  • Literature
1 7.6
purity
  • Formal
34 3.9
innocence
159 3.4

Surface Forms

whiteness singular
whitenesses plural

Morphology

whiteness = white (semi-transparent) = white + ness

The moral sense relies on a conventional metaphor (white = purity); while related to 'white', the moral/ethical meaning is an extended, not literal, reading for many learners.

Etymology

Whiteness grew a second meaning from the colour white, which people long saw as a sign of 'innocence' and 'clean'. So whiteness can mean the quality of being morally pure or without wrong.