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Glite Dictionary
White Nile

White Nile

1 4.1
A major river that starts at Lake Victoria and joins the Blue Nile at Khartoum to form the Nile
  • proper noun
: Nilo Blanco
  • The Blue Nile flows northwest through east-central Sudan for 400 miles from the Ethiopian border before joining the White Nile at Khartoum.

Examples

  • The source of the White Nile is in Uganda.

  • The White Nile begins its journey at Lake Victoria, flowing northwards through Uganda.

  • Tourists often visit the White Nile to experience its beautiful landscapes and vibrant wildlife.

  • The White Nile is an important water source for agriculture in southern Sudan.

Surface Forms

White Nile main

Morphology

White + Nile

The phrase is a descriptive toponym formed by the adjective white plus the river name Nile, so a learner who knows white and Nile can infer it denotes a particular branch or section of the Nile. Color-based river names (e.g., White Nile, Blue Nile) are cross-linguistically common and follow straightforward compositional naming, making the meaning immediately derivable for B1 learners.

Etymology

White Nile may come from a simple sight: early explorers and local people saw its water and sandy banks as pale, so they called that branch 'white' to tell it apart from the darker Blue Nile. That's why the name points to the western branch of the Nile that joins the Blue Nile at Khartoum.