bleach
/bliːt͡ʃ/[blit͡ʃ]
bleach noun: a chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
Noun (1)
bleach (countable and uncountable, plural bleaches)
- A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
- A variety of bleach.
Verb
bleach (third-person singular simple present bleaches, present participle bleaching, simple past and past participle bleached)
- To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
- Candifacio, to make whyte, to bleache, to make to glowe lyke a burnyng cole.1538, Thomas Elyot, The Dictionary of Syr Thomas Eliot Knyght, London: Thomas Berthelet
- The destruction of the colouring matters attached to the bodies to be bleached is effected either by the action of the air and light, of chlorine, or of sulphurous acid.1830, Andrew Ure, “BLEACHING”, in A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, page 128
- Synonyms:
- whitewash
- To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
- The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount... - […] when Mrs. Giddy-gaddy came to take out her clothes, deep green stains appeared on every thing, for she had forgotten the green silk lining of a certain cape, and its color had soaked nicely into the pink and blue gowns, the little chemises, and even the best ruffled petticoat. […] “Lay them on...1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 15, in Little Men: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC
- The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
- To lose color due to stress-induced expulsion of symbiotic unicellular algae.
- Once coral bleaching begins, corals tend to continue to bleach even if the stressor is removed.
- To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.
- semantically bleached words that have become illocutionary particles
Noun (2)
bleach (plural bleaches)
Adjective
bleach (comparative bleacher or more bleach, superlative bleachest or most bleach)
Noun (3)
bleach (plural bleaches)
- A disease of the skin characterized by hypopigmentation and itching, believed in the 17th century to be a form of leprosy.
bleach meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
bleach in Hindi
- to bleach, wash out
- निखारना nikhārnā
bleach in Tamil
- வெண்மையாக்கு, வெளுக்கு, நிறம் நீக்குதல், நிறமகற்று, வெளிறசசெய், வெளிறு
bleach in Marathi
- ब्लीच, ब्लीच करण्यासाठी
bleach in Urdu
- سفید ہو جانا, رنگ اڑانا, اجلانا
More languagesFewer languages
- bleach in Bengali
- বিবর্ণ করা, সাদা করা, রাসায়নিক দিয়ে রং তোলা
- bleach in Telugu
- బ్లీచ్, బ్లీచ్ చేయడానికి, బ్లీచ్ చెయ్యడానికి
- bleach in Malayalam
- ബ്ലീച്ച്, വെള്ളയാക്കുക, വെളുപ്പിക്കുക, ധവളീകരിക്ക
- bleach in Kannada
- ಬಿಳಿಚಿಸು, ಬಿಳಿ ಮಾಡು
- bleach in Gujarati
- નિખારવું nikhārvũ
- bleach in Odia
- ବ୍ଲିଚ, ବ୍ଲିଚ୍, ବ୍ଲୀଚ୍
- bleach in Nepali
- ब्लिच, ब्लीच, ब्लिच गर्न
- bleach in Arabic
- مَادَّة تَبْيِيض mādda tabyīḍ, بَيَّضَ bayyaḍa
- bleach in Malay
- peluntur, pemutih
- bleach in Indonesian
- pemutih
- bleach in Thai
- ไฮเตอร์ hai-dtə̂ə, น้ำยาซักผ้าขาว
Examples of bleach in a sentence
- Coral bleaching threatens to disrupt the population equilibria of the reef’s fishes.
- I suddenly remembered I needed to buy bleach, so scribbled it down on my shopping list.
- Pour a glug of bleach into the toilet.
Synonyms of bleach
Forms of bleach
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bleaches |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bleaches |
| present participle | bleaching |
| past participle | bleached |
| past | bleached |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | bleacher |
| comparative | more bleach |
| superlative | bleachest |
| superlative | most bleach |
Origin of bleach
From Middle English blechen, from Old English blǣċan (“to bleach, whiten”), from Proto-West Germanic *blaikijan, from Proto-Germanic *blaikijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”). Cognate with Dutch bleken (“to bleach”), German bleichen (“to bleach”), Danish blege, Swedish bleka (“to bleach”). Related to Old English blāc (“pale”) (English blake; compare also bleak).
From Middle English bleche, from Old English blǣċu, blǣċo (“paleness, pallor”), from Proto-Germanic *blaikį̄ (“paleness”). See Etymology 1 above.
From Middle English bleche (also bleke), from Old English blǣċ, blǣc, variants of blāc (“bright, shining, glittering”), from Proto-West Germanic *blaik, from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”). More at bleak.
Words formed from bleach
Phrases with bleach
Words that rhyme with bleach
Questions about bleach
- What does bleach mean?
- Bleach means a chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
- What is bleach in Hindi?
- Bleach in Hindi is निखारना (nikhārnā). See Bleach meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is bleach?
- Bleach can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce bleach?
- Bleach is pronounced /bliːt͡ʃ/.
- What is the plural of bleach?
- The plural of bleach is bleaches.
Words near bleach in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bleach (page history and authors); निखारना (Hindi) (page history and authors); bleach (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bleach (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bleach (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bleach (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bleach (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bleach (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); bleach (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); નિખારવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); bleach (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bleach (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-bleach.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bleach.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bleach. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.