Meaning of black in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Verb
    1. Definitions
  3. Classifying Adjective
    1. Definitions
  4. Noun
    1. Definitions
  5. Qualitative Adjective
    1. Etymology
    2. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    /blæk/

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  1. Verb

    black

    Definitions

    1. make or become black

    Examples

    • « The smoke blackened the ceiling »
    • « The ceiling blackened »

    Antonyms

    Derived terms

  2. Classifying Adjective

    black

    Definitions

    1. marked by anger or resentment or hostility

    Examples

    • « black looks »
    • « black words »

    Synonyms

  3. 2. stemming from evil characteristics or forces

    Examples

    • « wicked or dishonorable »
    • « black deeds »
    • « a black lie »
    • « his black heart has concocted yet another black deed »
    • « Darth Vader of the dark side »
    • « a dark purpose »
    • « dark undercurrents of ethnic hostility »
    • « the sc »

    Synonyms

  4. 3. offering little or no hope

    Examples

    • « the future looked black »
    • « prospects were bleak »
    • « Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult- J.M.Synge »
    • « took a dim view of things »

    Synonyms

  5. 4. (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences

    Examples

    • « bringing ruin »
    • « the stock market crashed on Black Friday »
    • « a calamitous defeat »
    • « the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign »
    • « such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fata »

    Synonyms

  6. 5. (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood

    Examples

    • « a face black with fury »

    Synonyms

  7. 6. extremely dark

    Examples

    • « a black moonless night »
    • « through the pitch-black woods »
    • « it was pitch-dark in the celler »

    Synonyms

  8. 7. harshly ironic or sinister

    Examples

    • « black humor »
    • « a grim joke »
    • « grim laughter »
    • « fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit »

    Synonyms

  9. 8. (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading

    Examples

    • « black propaganda »

    Synonyms

  10. 9. distributed or sold illicitly

    Examples

    • « the black economy pays no taxes »

    Synonyms

  11. 10. (used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing disgrace or shame

    Examples

    • « Man...has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands- Rachel Carson »
    • « an ignominious retreat »
    • « inglorious defeat »
    • « an opprobrious monument to human »

    Synonyms

  12. 11. (of coffee) without cream or sugar

    Synonyms

  13. 12. dressed in black

    Examples

    • « a black knight »
    • « black friars »

    Synonyms

  14. 13. soiled with dirt or soot

    Examples

    • « with feet black from playing outdoors »
    • « his shirt was black within an hour »

    Synonyms

  15. Noun

    black

    Definitions

    1. the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white)

    Antonyms

    Derived terms

  16. 2. total absence of light

    Examples

    • « they fumbled around in total darkness »
    • « in the black of night »
  17. 3. British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799)
  18. 4. popular child actress of the 1930's (born 1927)
  19. 5. a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa)
  20. 6. (board games) the darker pieces

    Antonyms

  21. 7. black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning)

    Examples

    • « the widow wore black »

  22. Qualitative Adjective

    black

    Etymology

    Old English blæc, of Germanic origin

    Definitions

    1. being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness

    Examples

    • « having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light »
    • « black leather jackets »
    • « as black as coal »
    • « rich black soil »

    Antonyms

  23. 2. of or belonging to a racial group having dark skin especially of sub-Saharan African origin

    Examples

    • « a great people--a black people--...injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization- Martin Luther King Jr. »

    Synonyms

    Antonyms

Famous quotes

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  • « I first learned that there were black people living in some place called other than the United States in the western hemisphere when I was a very little boy, and my father told me that when he was a boy about my age, he wanted to be an Episcopal priest, because he so admired his priest, a black man from someplace called Haiti. »
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  • « To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets. »
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  • « I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him. »
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