Translation guide
How to express 'turn white' in Japanese, covering physical color change, emotional paleness, and metaphorical uses.
Describing something that changes its color to white, such as hair, objects, or surfaces.
The most common and neutral way to say 'turn white'. Used for hair, objects, etc.
My hair turned white.
The wall turned white.
Often used for the sky turning white at dawn, or for something fading to white.
The sky began to turn white.
Technical term for bleaching or whitening, used in chemistry or materials science.
The coral is turning white (bleaching).
Describing a person's face losing color due to strong emotion.
Literally 'face turns pale', the most natural way to say someone went white with fear or shock.
Hearing the news, his face turned white.
Idiomatic: 'the blood drains from one's face'. Emphasizes the sudden loss of color.
Formal/literary term for turning pale. Often used in written descriptions.
She turned white as a sheet.
Describing someone who becomes pale due to intense anger rather than fear.
Metaphorical use, such as starting fresh or becoming innocent.
Literally 'return to white paper', meaning to start over with a clean slate. Not a direct translation of 'turn white' but conveys the metaphorical sense.
Let's turn the plan back to a blank slate.
While 白くなる means 'become white', it is not used for faces turning pale from emotion. Use 青ざめる or 血の気が引く instead.
His face turned white. (unnatural)
His face turned pale.
I turned white with fear.
I turned white with sheer anger.