How to pronounce whiten
Say it like WY-tun. Whiten has two syllables, and the main stress falls on the first one (WY).
Click the play button next to American or British to hear how to pronounce whiten. Choose Slow to hear each sound clearly.
- WY
- tun
- Main stress
- Lighter stress
- Unstressed
Whiten pronunciation, sound by sound
Read the parts left to right, then blend them together without pausing.
- WYSay this part loudest and longest. The vowel is the "i" in time.
- tunKeep this part quick and light. The vowel is the relaxed "uh" in about.
American vs British pronunciation of whiten
- Americans usually soften the t in the middle into a quick d-like tap; British speakers keep a crisp t.
British respelling: WY-tun.
What does whiten mean?
- (To cause) to become white or whiter; to bleach or blanch.“Age had whitened his hair.”
- To increase the security of an iterated block cipher by steps that combine the data with portions of the key.
- To normalize data so that the covariance matrix becomes the identity matrix; i.e., to remove correlations so each variable has unit variance.
Where does whiten come from?
From Middle English whitenen, whitnen, from Old Norse hvítna (“to whiten”), from Proto-Germanic *hwītnōną (“to whiten, become white”), from Proto-Indo-European *kwind-, *kwint- (“bright”), equivalent to white + -en.
Words that rhyme with whiten
Practicing rhymes is a quick way to lock in the vowel sound of whiten.
Questions about saying whiten
How do you pronounce whiten?
Say WY-tun. The American pronunciation is /ˈwaɪtən/. In British English it is /ˈwaɪtən/. Press play above to hear it at normal speed or slowly.
How many syllables are in whiten?
Whiten has two syllables, and the main stress falls on the first one (WY). Broken into parts: WY · tun.
Is whiten pronounced differently in British English?
Yes. Americans usually soften the t in the middle into a quick d-like tap; British speakers keep a crisp t. The British form is /ˈwaɪtən/ (WY-tun).