Word.ws English Dictionary

whitesplaining

whitesplaining is the present participle and gerund of whitesplain.

Meaning of whitesplain

Verb

whitesplain (third-person singular simple present whitesplains, present participle whitesplaining, simple past and past participle whitesplained)

  1. (Internet, colloquial, derogatory) 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

Questions about whitesplaining

What is whitesplaining the present participle and gerund of?
Whitesplaining is the present participle and gerund of whitesplain.

Words near whitesplaining in the dictionary

  1. whitespaces
  2. whitesplain
  3. whitesplained
  4. whitesplainer
  5. whitesplainers
  6. whitesplaining
  7. whitesplains
  8. whitesploitation
  9. whitespot
  10. whitespots
  11. whitespotted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whitesplaining (page history and authors); 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.

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Cite this entry: “whitesplaining.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whitesplaining. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.