The hot, dense remnant of a low- to medium-mass star after it has exhausted its nuclear fuel and shed its outer layers. White dwarfs are supported against gravitational collapse by electron degeneracy pressure and slowly cool over billions of years.
The term was coined in the 1920s when astronomers discovered these faint, hot stars. 'White' refers to their high surface temperature (initially 50,000-200,000K), while 'dwarf' indicates their small size despite being very massive - typically Earth-sized but containing the mass of the Sun.
White dwarfs are cosmic diamonds in the rough - they're so dense that a teaspoon would weigh as much as a car, and they're slowly crystallizing from the inside out! They're also stellar time capsules, cooling so slowly they'll outlive every other type of star.
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