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White vs Alabaster - What's the difference?

white | alabaster |

As adjectives the difference between white and alabaster

is that white is bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light while alabaster is made of alabaster.

As nouns the difference between white and alabaster

is that white is the color/colour of snow or milk; the colour of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths while alabaster is a fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally.

As a verb white

is to make white; to whiten; to bleach.

As a proper noun White

is {{surname|common|from=nicknames}.

white

English

Alternative forms

* (l), (l), (l) (obsolete)

Adjective

(er)
  • Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
  • * (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)
    • white as the whitest lily on a stream.
  • * 1962' (quoting '''1381 text), (Hans Kurath) & Sherman M. Kuhn, eds., ''(Middle English Dictionary) , Ann Arbor, Mich.: (University of Michigan Press), , page 1242:
    • dorr?&
  • 773;, d?r? adj. & n. toste wyte bred and do yt in dischis, and god Almande mylk.
  • Of the Caucasian race.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1949, chapter=The Green Book, author=Wendell P. Alston, page=3
    • , title=The Negro Motorist Green Book, edition=1949, location=New York, publisher=Victor H. Green , passage=
  • Designated for use by Caucasians.
  • Relatively light or pale in colour.
  • Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
  • * (Lord Byron) (1788-1824)
    • Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"
  • (label) Containing cream, milk or creamer.
  • The standard denomination of the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the white set, no matter what the actual colour.
  • Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
  • * :
    • NOw rydeth Galahalt yet withouten shelde / and so rode four dayes without ony aduenture / And at the fourth day after euensonge / he came to a whyte Abbay / and there was he receyued with grete reuerence / and ledde vnto a chambre / and there was he vnarmed / And thenne was he ware of knyghtes of the table round
  • Honourable, fair; decent.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
    • White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
    • No whiter page than Addison's remains.
  • *
  • * 1953 , (Raymond Chandler), The Long Goodbye , Penguin, 2010, p.12:
  • *:‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’
  • *
  • Lacking coloration from ultraviolet light.
  • Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair; hoary.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
    • Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.
  • (label) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
  • * Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
    • On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.
  • (label) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
  • * (Geoffrey Chaucer) (c.1343-1400)
    • Come forth, my white spouse.
  • * (1586-c.1639)
    • I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.
  • (label) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
  • * 1932 , (Duff Cooper), Talleyrand , Folio Society, 2010, p.163:
    • Aimée de Coigny had always adopted with enthusiasm the political views of her ruling lover and she had thus already held nearly every shade of opinion from red republicanism to white reaction.

    Antonyms

    * (bright and colourless) black, nonwhite, unwhite * (of coffee) black * (lacking coloration) tanned

    Synonyms

    * (lacking coloration) fair, pale

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The color/colour of snow or milk; the colour of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
  • A Caucasian person.
  • The albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
  • (anatomy) The sclera, white of the eye.
  • Any butterfly of the Pieris genus.
  • (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The cue ball in cue games.
  • (countable, and, uncountable) wine.
  • * {{quote-song
    • , year = 1977 , title = (Scenes from an Italian Restaurant) , composer = (Billy Joel) , album = , passage = A bottle of red, a bottle of white / It all depends upon your appetite / I'll meet you any time you want / In our Italian Restaurant. }}
  • (slang) Street name for cocaine.
  • (archery) The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
  • * Shakespeare
    • 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white .
  • A white pigment.
    • Venice white

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from "white") * black-and-white * egg white * flake white * flat white * great white shark * honorary white * Large White * non-white * off-white,offwhite * snow-white * Snow White * titanium white * white heat * white admiral * white alkali * white area * white as a sheet * white as driven snow * white ash * white as snow * White Australia Policy * white bacon * white bear * white belt * white blood cell * white book * white bread * white bryony * white cell * white chip * white Chirstmas * white chocolate * white cloud * white clover * white coal * white corpuscle * white crappie * white currant * white dwarf * white elephant * White Ensign * white feather * white fish * white flag * white flight * white flour * white fox * white frost * white gasoline * white gold * white goods * white gum * white hole * white hope * white horse * White House * white hunter * white knight * white lady * white lead * white leather * white lie * white light * white lightning * white lime * white line * white list * white magic * white man * white marlin * white matter * white meat * white metal * white mica * white mustard * white night * white noise * white out * white pages * white pepper * white pointer * white power * white pudding * white radish * white rice * white room * white rust * white sale * white sapphire * White Sea * white sheep * white-shoe * white space * white spirit * white stick * white sugar * white tie * white vitriol * white water * white wedding * white witch * whitebait * whitebeam * whiteboard * white-bread * white-breasted sea eagle * whitecap * whitecoat * white-collar * white-collar crime * white-collar worker * white-crowned sparrow * whitecurrant * whitedamp * white-eye * whiteface * white-faced * white-faced heron * whitefly * white-footed mouse * white-glove building * white-haired * white-headed * white-hot * white-knuckle * white-kuckle ride * white-livered * whitely * whiten * whiteness * white-out * whiter than white * whites * white-shoe firm * white-sided dolphin * whitesmith * white-tablecloth restaurant * whitethroat * white-tie * whitewall * whitewall tire * whitewash * whitewater rafting * whitish

    See also

    * * leucite * leukoma * leukosis * Sauvignon blanc * Svetambara * terra alba * (Race)

    Verb

    (whit)
  • To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
    • Whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of uncleanness. — Matthew xxiii. 27.
    So as no fuller on earth can white them. — Mark ix. 3.

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * (l) English terms with homophones 1000 English basic words

    alabaster

    English

    (wikipedia alabaster)

    Alternative forms

    * alabastre (obsolete) * alablaster (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally.
  • * c. 1596 , , The Merchant of Venice , Act I, Scene I, lines 89-90
    • Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
    Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster ?
  • * 1867 '', ''Paradiso , Canto XV, lines 22-23] (translated by [[w:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", Henry Wadsworth Longfellow])
    • Nor was the flame dissevered from its ribbon
  • *:: But like a radiant fillet ran along
  • *:: So that fire seemed it behind alabaster .
  • * 1915 , The New York Times , " Egyptian Antiquities for Metropolitan" (pdf), 15 May
    • One of the striking relics found at the tomb, was a Canopic portrait head of Queen Tii, made entirely of alabaster except the eyes and eyebrows, which were inlaid lapis lazuli and osidian.
  • (historical) A variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.

    • Adjective

    (-)
  • Made of alabaster
    • The crown is stored in an alabaster box with an onyx handle and a gold lock.
  • Resembling alabaster: white, pale, translucent.
    • An ominous alabaster fog settled in the valley.

    Quotations

    * 1594 , William Shakespeare, " The Rape of Lucrece", lines 418-420 *: With more than admiration he admir’d *:: Her azure veins, her alabaster skin, *:: Her coral lips, her snow-white dimpled chin. * 1611 , King James Version of the Bible, Mark 14:3 *: And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. * before 1887 , Emily Dickinson, " Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers" *: Safe in their alabaster chambers *: Untouched by morning, untouched by noon *: Sleep the meek members of the resurrection, *: Rafters of satin, and roof of stone. * 1895 , Katherine Lee Bates, "" *: Thy alabaster cities gleam *: Undimmed by human tears! *