as in bleaching
to make white or whiter by removing color
years of sunlight had almost completely whitened the flag
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Recent Examples of whitening
That means everything from teeth whitening to fillings and full smile makeovers.
—
Yola Robert, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
Bleach is a whitening agent and an important disinfectant but doesn't work to unclog drains.
—Lauren David, Southern Living, 23 Dec. 2024
Plus, score savings on best-selling teeth whitening strips.
—Isabel Garcia, People.com, 20 Dec. 2024
Teeth whitening gadgets like the Colgate Whitening Pen are super helpful to give yourself a sparkling smile just in time for the holiday season!
—Kasey Caminiti, USA TODAY, 29 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for whitening
Yola Robert, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
Bleach is a whitening agent and an important disinfectant but doesn't work to unclog drains.
—Lauren David, Southern Living, 23 Dec. 2024
Plus, score savings on best-selling teeth whitening strips.
—Isabel Garcia, People.com, 20 Dec. 2024
Teeth whitening gadgets like the Colgate Whitening Pen are super helpful to give yourself a sparkling smile just in time for the holiday season!
—Kasey Caminiti, USA TODAY, 29 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for whitening
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whitening
Verb
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For example, coral reefs are bleaching more often and dying due to ocean warming and acidification, undermining fisheries, marine biodiversity and economic sectors such as tourism.—
Lauren Gifford,
Space.com,
25 Aug. 2025
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The pic also showed off Jennifer Aniston’s money piece highlights, the face-framing way to give yourself a bit of a blonde glow without bleaching your whole head, sort of the way a ring light illuminates you from the front.—
Elizabeth Logan,
Glamour,
19 Aug. 2025
Verb
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This revealed that, even as the X-ray emissions of 4U 1630-472 were fading, the system was still ejecting material at an incredible 20 million mph (32 million kph) — about 3% the speed of light, and 15,000 times faster than the top speed of an F-16 jet fighter!—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
9 Sep. 2025
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All of these weaknesses are either gone or fading fast.—
Michael Foster,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Whitening.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whitening. Accessed 15 Sep. 2025.
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