Whiteness, chromaticness, and blackness are defined for CIELAB. These NCS-like color attributes offer an alternative to lightness and chroma for describing color. Their hue-preserving symmetries are derived for in stimulus color space. A numerical example provides what theory predicts are visually uniform sequences of colors with constant lightness, whiteness. chromaticness, or blackness. Numerical approximation is unnecessary. Such sets of symmetric colors in one hue are visually interesting, and useful for computer aided design. The appropriateness of such attributes for CIELAB is briefly discussed. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 35, 319-323. 2010: Published online 22 January 2010 in Wiley Inter Science (www.interscience.wiley.com). DO! 10.1002/col.20577