1
: having the face white in whole or in part
used especially of an animal otherwise dark in color
2
: having a wan pale face

Examples of white-faced in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
So the image of an infant howler monkey clinging to the back of a white-faced capuchin confused Zoë Goldsborough, a behavioral ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany. Elizabeth Landau, New York Times, 19 May 2025 That's what scientists think after watching a bunch of male white-faced capuchin monkeys walking around with baby howler monkeys clinging to their backs. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR, 19 May 2025 Costa Rican white-faced capuchins were more likely to survive El Niño if their feces exhibited higher levels of stress hormones during preceding droughts. Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 3 Mar. 2025 Housed in five separate cages, the deceased monkeys included the De Brazza species as well as one common squirrel monkey, cotton-top tamarins and white-faced sakis. Reuters, CNN, 21 Oct. 2024 The animals, a De Brazza’s monkey, one common squirrel monkey, three cotton-top tamarins and three white-faced sakis, were found dead at the city’s Zoological and Botanical Gardens (HKZBG) on Sunday, Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department said in a statement. Reuters, CNN, 14 Oct. 2024 This is a truly remote wilderness and a great place to spot rare mammals such as white-faced capuchins, margays, ocelots, and tapirs, an animal related to the rhinoceros species. Lily Bunker, Travel + Leisure, 21 Sep. 2024 Decades on, Fleur suddenly reemerges — all white-faced and disoriented but not a day older — to enter a newspaper office and ask to place an ad looking for Chen-Pang. Nathan Smith, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2024 The living animals seized included sacred ibises, white-faced capuchins, tortoises and Burmese pythons, while the 28 dead animals included an alligator, a mandrill and a green-winged macaw, according to a search warrant. Justin Jouvenal, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1570, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of white-faced was in 1570

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Cite this Entry

“White-faced.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white-faced. Accessed 2 Jun. 2025.

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