variants
or less commonly nonwhite
1
: not of a white race (see race entry 1 sense 1a)
non-white immigrants
non-white Alaskans
2
: not of the color white
… I was standing at the very top of the ladder and stretching to paint over the last non-white spot on the ceiling …—
Xaver Bayer
Xaver Bayer
variants
or less commonly nonwhite
plural non-whites also nonwhites
: a person who is not of a white race (see race entry 1 sense 1a)
Examples of non-white in a Sentence
Noun
The program is even less popular among nonwhites.
Recent Examples on the WebRafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 27 Mar. 2024
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was put into place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, to, among other things, combat local policies that intentionally diluted the power of non-white voters, Levitt said — policies like at-large elections for school boards or city councils.
—Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 25 Mar. 2024
The billionaire has also been criticized for claiming that Boeing’s issues with the 737 Max 9 were caused by hiring too many non-white pilots and factory workers.
—William Gavin, Quartz, 18 Mar. 2024
If anything, the banner Blackness of the 2017 Oscars proved that there needs to be more Black films, not just more non-white people in the Academy, to avoid going years where there’s no diversity in American cinema.
—Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 8 Mar. 2024
The stops have also been found to affect non-white drivers at higher rates.
—Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 6 Mar. 2024
Google’s Gemini was often defaulting to showing non-white people and women because of how the company used a process called fine-tuning to guide a model’s responses.
—Will Knight, WIRED, 29 Feb. 2024
Last week, Google paused Gemini’s ability to generate images after it was widely discovered that the model generated racially diverse, Nazi-era German soldiers, US Founding Fathers who were non-white, and even inaccurately portrayed the races of Google’s own co-founders.
—Alex Heath, The Verge, 28 Feb. 2024
Despite diversity efforts in recent years, less than 5% of America’s farms are owned by non-white people, the same percentage reported five years prior.
—Chloe Sorvino, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024
Kyle Paoletta, Harpers Magazine, 29 Mar. 2023
But the lead acts — Bad Bunny, Blackpink, and Frank Ocean — also make history as the first group of 100% non-white Coachella headliners.
—Oscar Hartzog, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2023
So just white people over non-white people is a total ordering.
—Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 22 Mar. 2023
But that isn’t much different than a long list of public and other private schools serving low-income and non-white children in Milwaukee.
—Alan J. Borsuk, Journal Sentinel, 20 Mar. 2023
Courtesy of Trier Bryant Reports of massive layoffs disproportionately hitting corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion teams (DEI) and non-white professionals are one the latest setbacks for DEI professionals.
—Trier Bryant, Fortune, 17 Mar. 2023
The series has gotten far better at not exoticizing foods from non-white cultures and developed a greater respect for them.
—Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 9 Mar. 2023
In addition to the link between air quality and miles driven, his team found that non-white communities face higher pollution levels across the board.
—Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2023
That is staggering—but nowhere near as baffling as the fact that only one non-white woman (Berry) has received a best-actress Oscar in that glittering awards show’s almost 100-year history.
—Radhika Seth, Vogue, 6 Mar. 2023
Adjective
Share [Findings] Drivers of fancy cars yield to pedestrians less often than drivers of humble cars, and still less if the pedestrians are non-white men.
—Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 27 Mar. 2024
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was put into place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, to, among other things, combat local policies that intentionally diluted the power of non-white voters, Levitt said — policies like at-large elections for school boards or city councils.
—Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 25 Mar. 2024
The billionaire has also been criticized for claiming that Boeing’s issues with the 737 Max 9 were caused by hiring too many non-white pilots and factory workers.
—William Gavin, Quartz, 18 Mar. 2024
If anything, the banner Blackness of the 2017 Oscars proved that there needs to be more Black films, not just more non-white people in the Academy, to avoid going years where there’s no diversity in American cinema.
—Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 8 Mar. 2024
The stops have also been found to affect non-white drivers at higher rates.
—Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 6 Mar. 2024
Google’s Gemini was often defaulting to showing non-white people and women because of how the company used a process called fine-tuning to guide a model’s responses.
—Will Knight, WIRED, 29 Feb. 2024
Last week, Google paused Gemini’s ability to generate images after it was widely discovered that the model generated racially diverse, Nazi-era German soldiers, US Founding Fathers who were non-white, and even inaccurately portrayed the races of Google’s own co-founders.
—Alex Heath, The Verge, 28 Feb. 2024
Despite diversity efforts in recent years, less than 5% of America’s farms are owned by non-white people, the same percentage reported five years prior.
—Chloe Sorvino, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024
Noun
Share [Findings] Drivers of fancy cars yield to pedestrians less often than drivers of humble cars, and still less if the pedestrians are non-white men.
—Kyle Paoletta, Harpers Magazine, 29 Mar. 2023
But the lead acts — Bad Bunny, Blackpink, and Frank Ocean — also make history as the first group of 100% non-white Coachella headliners.
—Oscar Hartzog, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2023
So just white people over non-white people is a total ordering.
—Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 22 Mar. 2023
But that isn’t much different than a long list of public and other private schools serving low-income and non-white children in Milwaukee.
—Alan J. Borsuk, Journal Sentinel, 20 Mar. 2023
Courtesy of Trier Bryant Reports of massive layoffs disproportionately hitting corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion teams (DEI) and non-white professionals are one the latest setbacks for DEI professionals.
—Trier Bryant, Fortune, 17 Mar. 2023
The series has gotten far better at not exoticizing foods from non-white cultures and developed a greater respect for them.
—Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 9 Mar. 2023
In addition to the link between air quality and miles driven, his team found that non-white communities face higher pollution levels across the board.
—Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2023
That is staggering—but nowhere near as baffling as the fact that only one non-white woman (Berry) has received a best-actress Oscar in that glittering awards show’s almost 100-year history.
—Radhika Seth, Vogue, 6 Mar. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'non-white.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near non-white
Cite this Entry
“Non-white.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/non-white. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
nonwhite
noun
non·white
(ˈ)nän-ˈhwīt 
-ˈwīt
: a person whose features and especially whose skin color are different from those of white people of northwestern Europe
nonwhite
adjective
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