whitesplain
whitesplain verb: to explain (something) condescendingly to one who is not white, especially regarding race relations or minority behavior, presuming the listener's inferior understanding because of their race.
Verb
whitesplain (third-person singular simple present whitesplains, present participle whitesplaining, simple past and past participle whitesplained)
- To explain (something) condescendingly to one who is not white, especially regarding race relations or minority behavior, presuming the listener's inferior understanding because of their race.
- Rand Paul whitesplained to students at Howard University that a black Republican founded the NAACP.2013, Clarence Page (quoting Urban Dictionary), "Rand Paul ‘whitesplaining’ for Howard students", New Haven Register, 16 April 2013
- One self-described white feminist tweeted at her to explain that no women of color had been at the Barnard meeting "and that I needed to be educated about that," Wilson recalls. Somehow, activists who prided themselves on their racial enlightenment "were whitesplaining me about racism," she adds...2014 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “Feminism's Toxic Twitter Wars”, in The Nation
Examples of whitesplain in a sentence
- Somehow, activists who prided themselves on their racial enlightenment "were whitesplaining me about racism," she adds, laughing.2014 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “Feminism's Toxic Twitter Wars”, in The Nation:
- Obviously, the answer for those living in abject poverty in a jobless environment is to have someone come down from their lofty perch and whitesplain about how to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.2014, Justin Baragona, "Paul Ryan claims Black men are lazy and cause of poverty", New York Beacon, Volume 21, Number 12, 20 March 2014 -...
Forms of whitesplain
| third-person singular present | whitesplains |
|---|---|
| present participle | whitesplaining |
| past participle | whitesplained |
| past | whitesplained |
Origin of whitesplain
From white + -splain, after mansplain.
Questions about whitesplain
- What does whitesplain mean?
- Whitesplain means to explain (something) condescendingly to one who is not white, especially regarding race relations or minority behavior, presuming the listener's inferior understanding because of their race.
- How do you use whitesplain in a sentence?
- Somehow, activists who prided themselves on their racial enlightenment "were whitesplaining me about racism," she adds, laughing.
- What part of speech is whitesplain?
- Whitesplain is a verb.
- What is the past tense of whitesplain?
- The past tense of whitesplain is whitesplained.
Words near whitesplain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: whitesplain (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “whitesplain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whitesplain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.