To whiten means to make something white or whiter, like when you brush your teeth to keep them bright and clean, or when you bleach a shirt to remove stains that have yellowed it over time.

The word appears in many everyday contexts. Bakers whiten frosting by adding powdered sugar. Snow whitens the ground in winter. Some people use special toothpaste designed to whiten their teeth. You might notice that strong sunlight can whiten colored fabric left outside too long.

Scientists use whiten in a technical sense too. When they talk about whitening data or images, they mean processing information to remove patterns or biases that might confuse their analysis. This specialized meaning connects to the basic idea: just as whitening a surface changes how stains or colors look, whitening data changes how patterns look.