whiten

Meaning

1. (ergative) (To cause) to become white or whiter; to bleach or blanch.
2. To increase the security of an iterated block cipher by steps that combine the data with portions of the key.
3. To normalize data so that the covariance matrix becomes the identity matrix; i.e., to remove correlations so each variable has unit variance.

Synonyms

bleach

whitewash

blanch

pale

white

fade

become white

wash

🧽

make white

turn white

dim

launder

lighten

paint

pelt

peroxide

pipe-clay

purify

scald

shower

🚿

snow

❄️

whitening

become pale

decolor

decolorise

decolour

decolourise

make pure

paint white

white-wash

grow white

lime wash

be white snow

bleaching

bleach out

blench

clean

cleanse

clear

decolorize

decolourize

decorate

exonerate

Translations

blanchir

blanquear

imbiancare

ασπρίζω

sbiancare

witten

weißen

λευκαίνω

bleken

bleichen

branquear

wit maken

emblanquecer

albare

ağarmak

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈ(h)waɪ̯.tən/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: whitenen

Cognate with Icelandic: hvítna

Cognate with Swedish: vitna

Cognate with Danish: hvidne

Cognate with Old English: hwītian

In summary

From Middle English whitenen, whitnen, from Old Norse hvítna (“to whiten”), from Proto-Germanic *hwītnōną (“to whiten, become white”), from Proto-Indo-European *kwind-, *kwint- (“bright”), equivalent to white + -en. Cognate with Icelandic hvítna (“to whiten”), Swedish vitna, hvitna (“to whiten”), Danish hvidne (“to whiten”). Compare Old English hwītian (“to whiten, become white, be white, make white”).