diff --git a/cpplint/cpplint.py b/cpplint/cpplint.py
index 6c839b4..a627615 100755
--- a/cpplint/cpplint.py
+++ b/cpplint/cpplint.py
@@ -3866,9 +3866,9 @@ def CheckTrailingSemicolon(filename, clean_lines, linenum, error):
 
   # Block bodies should not be followed by a semicolon.  Due to C++11
   # brace initialization, there are more places where semicolons are
-  # required than not, so we use a whitelist approach to check these
-  # rather than a blacklist.  These are the places where "};" should
-  # be replaced by just "}":
+  # required than not, so we explicitly list the allowed rules rather
+  # than listing the disallowed ones.  These are the places where "};"
+  # should be replaced by just "}":
   # 1. Some flavor of block following closing parenthesis:
   #    for (;;) {};
   #    while (...) {};
@@ -3924,11 +3924,11 @@ def CheckTrailingSemicolon(filename, clean_lines, linenum, error):
     #  - INTERFACE_DEF
     #  - EXCLUSIVE_LOCKS_REQUIRED, SHARED_LOCKS_REQUIRED, LOCKS_EXCLUDED:
     #
-    # We implement a whitelist of safe macros instead of a blacklist of
+    # We implement a list of safe macros instead of a list of
     # unsafe macros, even though the latter appears less frequently in
     # google code and would have been easier to implement.  This is because
-    # the downside for getting the whitelist wrong means some extra
-    # semicolons, while the downside for getting the blacklist wrong
+    # the downside for getting the allowed checks wrong means some extra
+    # semicolons, while the downside for getting disallowed checks wrong
     # would result in compile errors.
     #
     # In addition to macros, we also don't want to warn on
@@ -5124,19 +5124,19 @@ def CheckForNonConstReference(filename, clean_lines, linenum,
   #
   # We also accept & in static_assert, which looks like a function but
   # it's actually a declaration expression.
-  whitelisted_functions = (r'(?:[sS]wap(?:<\w:+>)?|'
+  allowed_functions = (r'(?:[sS]wap(?:<\w:+>)?|'
                            r'operator\s*[<>][<>]|'
                            r'static_assert|COMPILE_ASSERT'
                            r')\s*\(')
-  if Search(whitelisted_functions, line):
+  if Search(allowed_functions, line):
     return
   elif not Search(r'\S+\([^)]*$', line):
-    # Don't see a whitelisted function on this line.  Actually we
+    # Don't see an allowed function on this line.  Actually we
     # didn't see any function name on this line, so this is likely a
     # multi-line parameter list.  Try a bit harder to catch this case.
     for i in xrange(2):
       if (linenum > i and
-          Search(whitelisted_functions, clean_lines.elided[linenum - i - 1])):
+          Search(allowed_functions, clean_lines.elided[linenum - i - 1])):
         return
 
   decls = ReplaceAll(r'{[^}]*}', ' ', line)  # exclude function body