white man's burden

noun

: a duty formerly asserted by white people to manage the affairs of nonwhite people whom they believed to be less developed

Word History

Etymology

Note: The phrase "the white man's burden" is closely associated with a poem of that name by Rudyard kipling, which was first published in The Times of London on February 4, 1899, and in The New York Sun on February 5. Kipling's poem asserts that it is the moral duty of the nations of the West to bring civilization to the less enlightened populace of the South and East—to, as Kipling put it, "Your new-caught, sullen peoples,/Half devil and half child." At the time of its publication the U.S. Senate was debating ratification of the Treaty of Paris, negotiated by Spain and the U.S. to end the Spanish-American War; a major clause of the treaty would have turned over government of the ten million people of the Philippines, who were judged "uncivilized," to the U.S. (On the day of the poem's publication, Filipino nationalists, not having been consulted about their status, began military operations against U.S. troops on Luzon.) Kipling favored Philippine annexation, and sent a copy of the poem to Theodore Roosevelt, then governor of New York. The phrase "the white man's burden," however, was not Kipling's coinage, and appears a few times in print before 1899. The earliest known occurrence appears to be in the Methodist newspaper The Southern Christian Advocate for September 21, 1865.

First Known Use

1865, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of white man's burden was in 1865

Rhymes for white man's burden

See All Rhymes for white man's burden

Browse Nearby Words

white mallow
white man's burden
white-man's foot
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“White man's burden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20man%27s%20burden. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Using Bullet Points ( • )

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

What’s the difference between ‘cemetery’ and ‘graveyard’?

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Skibidi, Mog & More: Gen Alpha Slang

13 Wonderful Words That You're Not Using (Yet)

Ten More Words from Taylor Swift Songs

Birds Say the Darndest Things

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Skibidi, Mog & More: Gen Alpha Slang

13 Wonderful Words That You're Not Using (Yet)
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
pastel colored puzzle piece speech bubbles with shadows
Quiz: Find the Missing Link Figure out the word that fits both halves of the ...
See All