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• black
  black

  adjective

  being a color that lacks hue and brightness and absorbs light without reflecting any of the rays composing it.
• Black
  Black

black

¹ American  

[blak] / blæk /

adjective

• blacker,
  comparative
• blackest
  superlative

1. being a color that lacks hue and brightness and absorbs light without reflecting any of the rays composing it.

   They labeled the boxes with a black permanent marker.

   Synonyms:

   ebony, sable, inky, sooty, dusky, dark

   Antonyms:

   white

2. characterized by absence of light; enveloped in darkness.

   a black night.

3. soiled or stained with dirt.

   That shirt was black within an hour.

   Synonyms:

   dingy, dirty

   Antonyms:

   clean

4. gloomy; pessimistic; dismal.

   a black outlook.

   Synonyms:

   funereal, mournful, doleful, somber, depressing, sad

   Antonyms:

   cheerful, hopeful

5. deliberately harmful; inexcusable.

   a black lie.

6. boding ill; sullen or hostile; threatening: black looks.

   black words;

   black looks.

   Synonyms:

   calamitous, disastrous

7. (of coffee or tea) without milk or cream.

   I take my coffee black.

8. without any moral quality or goodness; evil; wicked.

   His black heart has concocted yet another black deed.

   Synonyms:

   villainous, traitorous, treacherous, nefarious, horrible, atrocious, monstrous, infernal, devilish, fiendish, inhuman, sinful

9. indicating censure, disgrace, or liability to punishment.

   a black mark on one's record.

10. marked by disaster or misfortune.

    black areas of drought; Black Friday.

11. wearing black or dark clothing or armor.

    the black prince.

12. based on the grotesque, morbid, or unpleasant aspects of life: black humor.

    black comedy;

    black humor.

13. (of a check mark, flag, etc.) done or written in black to indicate, as on a list, that which is undesirable, substandard, potentially dangerous, etc..

    Pilots put a black flag next to the ten most dangerous airports.

14. illegal or underground.

    The black economy pays no taxes.

15. showing a profit; not showing any losses.

    the first black quarter in two years.

16. deliberately false or intentionally misleading.

    black propaganda.

17. British. boycotted, as certain goods or products by a trade union.

18. (of steel) in the form in which it comes from the rolling mill or forge; unfinished.

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noun

• blacks
  plural

1. the color at one extreme end of the scale of grays, opposite to white, absorbing all light incident upon it.

2. black clothing, especially as a sign of mourning.

   He wore black at the funeral.

3. Chess, Checkers. the dark-colored men or pieces or squares.

4. black pigment.

   lamp black.

5. Slang. black beauty.

6. a horse or other animal that is entirely black.

verb (used with object)

• blacks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• blacked,
  past participle,  past
• blacking
  present participle

1. to make black; put black on; blacken.

2. British. to boycott or ban.

3. to polish (shoes, boots, etc.) with blacking.

verb (used without object)

• blacks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• blacked,
  past participle,  past
• blacking
  present participle

1. to become black; take on a black color; blacken.

adverb

1. (of coffee or tea) served without milk or cream.

verb phrase

1. black out

   1. to lose consciousness.

      He blacked out at the sight of blood.

   2. to erase, obliterate, or suppress.

      News reports were blacked out.

   3. to forget everything relating to a particular event, person, etc..

      When it came to his war experiences he blacked out completely.

   4. Theater. to extinguish all of the stage lights.

   5. to make or become inoperable.

      to black out the radio broadcasts from the U.S.

   6. Military. to obscure by concealing all light in defense against air raids.

   7. Radio and Television. to impose a broadcast blackout on (an area).

   8. to withdraw or cancel (a special fare, sale, discount, etc.) for a designated period.

      The special airfare discount will be blacked out by the airlines over the holiday weekend.

idioms

1. black and white,

   1. print or writing.

      I want that agreement in black and white.

   2. a monochromatic picture done with black and white only.

   3. a chocolate soda containing vanilla ice cream.

   4. Slang. a highly recognizable police car, used to patrol a community.

2. black or white, completely either one way or another, without any intermediate state.

3. in the black, operating at a profit or being out of debt (opposed to in the red).

   New production methods put the company in the black.

Black ² American  

[blak] / blæk /

Or black

adjective

1. 1. relating or belonging to any of the various human populations characterized by dark skin pigmentation, specifically the dark-skinned peoples of Africa, Oceania, and Australia.

   2. relating to or noting the descendants of these populations, without regard for the lightness or darkness of skin tone.

   3. African American.

      The exhibit featured the work of young Black artists from New York.

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noun

1. Often Offensive. (Use as a noun in reference to a person, e.g., “a Black,” is often considered offensive.)

   1. a member of any of various dark-skinned peoples, especially those of Africa, Oceania, and Australia.

   2. African American.

Black ³ American  

[blak] / blæk /

noun

1. Hugo Lafayette 1886–1971, U.S. political official: associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court 1937–71.

2. (Sir) James Whyte 1924–2010, English pharmacologist: Nobel Prize 1988.

3. Joseph 1728–99, Scottish physician and chemist.

4. Shirley Temple Temple, Shirley.

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black ¹ British  

/ blæk /

adjective

1. of the colour of jet or carbon black, having no hue due to the absorption of all or nearly all incident light Compare white

2. without light; completely dark

3. without hope or alleviation; gloomy

   the future looked black

4. very dirty or soiled

   black factory chimneys

5. angry or resentful

   she gave him black looks

6. (of a play or other work) dealing with the unpleasant realities of life, esp in a pessimistic or macabre manner

   black comedy

7. (of coffee or tea) without milk or cream

8. causing, resulting from, or showing great misfortune

   black areas of unemployment

9. 1. wicked or harmful

      a black lie

   2. ( in combination )

      black-hearted

10. causing or deserving dishonour or censure

    a black crime

11. (of the face) purple, as from suffocation

12. (of goods, jobs, works, etc) being subject to boycott by trade unionists, esp in support of industrial action elsewhere

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noun

1. a black colour

2. a dye or pigment of or producing this colour

3. black clothing, worn esp as a sign of mourning

4. chess draughts

   1. a black or dark-coloured piece or square

   2. (usually capital) the player playing with such pieces

5. complete darkness

   the black of the night

6. a black ball in snooker, etc

7. (in roulette and other gambling games) one of two colours on which players may place even bets, the other being red

8. in credit or without debt

9. archery a black ring on a target, between the outer and the blue, scoring three points

verb

1. another word for blacken

2. (tr) to polish (shoes, etc) with blacking

3. (tr) to bruise so as to make black

   he blacked her eye

4. (tr) (of trade unionists) to organize a boycott of (specified goods, jobs, work, etc), esp in support of industrial action elsewhere

Black ² British  

/ blæk /

noun

1. a member of a human population having dark pigmentation of the skin

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adjective

1. of or relating to a Black person or Black people

   a Black neighbourhood

Black ³ British  

/ blæk /

noun

1. Sir James ( Whyte ). 1924–2010, British biochemist. He discovered beta-blockers and drugs for peptic ulcers: Nobel prize for physiology or medicine 1988

2. Joseph . 1728–99, Scottish physician and chemist, noted for his pioneering work on carbon dioxide and heat

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Black ¹ Scientific  

/ blăk /

1. British pharmacologist who discovered the first beta-blocker, which led to the development of safer and more effective drugs to treat high blood pressure and heart disease. Black also developed a blocker for gastric acid production that revolutionized the treatment of stomach ulcers. He shared with Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings the 1988 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

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Black ² Scientific  

1. British chemist who in 1756 discovered carbon dioxide, which he called “fixed air.” In addition to further studies of carbon dioxide, Black formulated the concepts of latent heat and heat capacity.

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black More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing black

• dirty (black) look
• in the red (black)
• look black
• paint black
• pot calling the kettle black

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Sensitive Note

Black may be capitalized when used in reference to people, as a sign of respect. The case for capitalizing the initial letter ( Black ) is further supported by the fact that the names of many other ethnic groups and nationalities use initial capital letters, e.g., Hispanic. Black as an adjective referring to a person or people is unlikely to cause negative reactions. As a noun, however, it does often offend. The use of the plural noun without an article is somewhat more accepted (home ownership among Blacks ); however, the plural noun with an article is more likely to offend (political issues affecting the Blacks ), and the singular noun is especially likely to offend (The small business proprietor is a Black ). Use the adjective instead: Black homeowners, Black voters, a Black business proprietor. In the United States, there is a complex social history for words that name or describe the dark-skinned peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants. A term that was once acceptable may now be offensive, and one that was once offensive may now be acceptable. Colored, for example, first used in colonial North America, was an appropriate referential term until the 1920s, when it was supplanted by Negro. Now colored is perceived not only as old-fashioned but offensive. It survives primarily in the name of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization formed when the word was not considered derogatory. Describing someone as a person of color, however, is not usually offensive. That term, an inclusive one that can refer to anyone who is not white, is frequently used by members of the Black community. Using “of color” can emphasize commonalities in nonwhite lives. However, when referring to a group of people who are all Black, it is more appropriate to be specific. Failure to explicitly reference blackness when it is exclusively appropriate, generalizing “Black” to “of color,” can be a form of erasure. Negro remained the overwhelming term of choice until the mid-1960s. That decade saw a burgeoning civil rights movement, which furthered a sense that Negro was contaminated by its long association with discrimination as well as its closeness to the disparaging and deeply offensive N-word. The emergence of the Black Power movement fostered the emergence of Black as a primary descriptive term, as in “Black pride.” By the mid-1970s Black had become common within and outside the Black community. But Negro has not entirely disappeared. It remains in the names of such organizations as the United Negro College Fund, people still refer to Negro spirituals, and some older Black people continue to identify with the term they have known since childhood. So Negro , while not offensive in established or historical contexts, is now looked upon in contemporary speech and writing as not only antiquated but highly likely to offend. During the 1980s, many Americans sought to display pride in their immigrant origins. Linguistically, this brought about a brief period of short-form hyphenated designations, like Italo-Americans and Greco-Americans. The Black community also embraced the existing term Afro-American, a label that emphasized geographical or ethnic heritage over skin color. The related label, African American, also saw an increase in use among activists in the 1970s and 1980s. African American was even more widely adopted in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s after high-profile Black leaders advocated for it, arguing, as Jesse Jackson did, that the term brought “proper historical context” and had “cultural integrity.” While African American has not completely replaced Black in common parlance, it works both as a noun and as an adjective. This shifting from term to term has not been smooth or linear, and periods of change like the late 1960s were often marked by confusion as to which term was appropriate. The 1967 groundbreaking film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, about a young interracial couple hoping that both sets of parents will accept their plans to marry, reflects the abundance of terminological choices available at the time. Various characters talk of a “colored girl,” a “colored man,” a “Negro,” and “Black people.” The N-word appears once, used disparagingly by one Black character to another. African American had not yet made it into the mix.

Usage

Talking about a Black or Blacks is considered offensive and it is better to talk about a Black person , Black people

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• blackishness
  noun
• blackness
  noun
• blackish
  adjective
• nonblack
  adjective
• unblacked
  adjective
• well-blacked
  adjective
• blackishly
  adverb
• blackly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• blacks
  plural

Adjectives

• blacker
  comparative
• blackest
  superlative

Participles

• blacking
  present
• blacked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• black
  simple
• blacks
  simple
• have blacked
  perfect
• has blacked
  perfect
• am blacking
  progressive
• are blacking
  progressive
• is blacking
  progressive
• have been blacking
  perfect progressive
• has been blacking
  perfect progressive

Past

• blacked
  simple
• had blacked
  perfect
• was blacking
  progressive
• were blacking
  progressive
• had been blacking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will black
  simple
• will have blacked
  perfect
• will be blacking
  progressive
• will have been blacking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of black¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English blak, Old English blæc; cognate with Old High German blah- (used only in compounds); akin to Old Norse blakkr “black,” blek “ink”; from Germanic blakaz, past participle of blakjan “to burn,” from a root meaning “to shine, flash, burn”

Origin of Black²

see origin at black ( def. )

Explanation

We all know what the color black looks like, but technically it's defined by the absence of light. Total darkness. Black is most commonly used as an adjective, but you can also use it as a noun, like when you say, "The actors wore black." Synonyms when used to describe color include inky, raven, and sable. This word can also refer to an angry feeling, as in a black mood, or something wicked, like black magic.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

black Black blacks blacker blackest blacked blacking

Sheriff’s deputies later recovered a long rope and a black chain in the apartment, authorities have said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

All the signage is in black and white, the walls various shades of gray.

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026

Lillia, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, was last seen on Saturday at the Trafford Centre shopping mall wearing a small black backpack.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

These broadsides, with their all-capital letters in fuchsia against a black background, are hard to miss.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

Beyond the fire’s glow, I never knew darkness could be so black.

From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Gallardo admitted on the “Scottie & Frnds” podcast that he didn’t know about Leimert Park’s significance to the Black community, admitting he “should’ve done more research” before deciding to take Barrio Athletics there.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

This will be a very different task for Maresca's men, with the emphasis on them breaking down the Black Cats, but I don't feel it will just be one-way traffic.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

The two dissenters, the Council’s two Black members, said their constituents in public housing worry about crime.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

For instance, Black children are 60 percent more likely than U.S. children overall to have asthma and four and a half times more likely to die from it.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

When I ask him about why he joined Black Alliance, he tells me it’s because he comes from a long history of activists.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold

Fiel, vice president of brand and creative at the AI-native startup Newton, loves reinventions of utilitarian clothing, favoring functional pieces in deep greens and blacks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

What 250 years means: To me, it means that we’re still here, we’re living, we’re breathing… The blacks and browns, you know, us sticking together, I feel like we accomplished a lot in 250 years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

“Jefferson on Race” collects an array of his writings about blacks and Native Americans, ranging from state papers to plantation records.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

“On a number of issues that would primarily impact conditions in low-income communities, grassroots blacks have registered opinions that are sharply at odds with the positions taken by the civil rights cadres.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026

The census shows a population of 5.3 million Americans, including a little more than 1 million blacks, about 19 percent of the total U.S. population; some 90 percent of them are enslaved.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

The former journalist, who was documenting the wreckage during his descent, described the darkness of the Atlantic ocean as "blacker than you could ever imagine" with temperatures dropping to 2C.

From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2023

Last month a subset of the same team, using artificial intelligence to analyze the original data, generated a sharper image that showed a thinner doughnut of doom surrounding an even blacker center.

From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2023

“Liberation Day” is different only in that the humor is a little blacker, the fears of our exploitation more intense.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2022

“It’s big, and it’s blacker than coal,” Jewitt said.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 14, 2022

There was no hint of another color in his coat; it was blacker than moonless midnight.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026

Being on the “state sponsor of terrorism” list is the blackest of designations for any country.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 14, 2025

Comparisons with other major tropical rivers show that the Ruki may even be the blackest large blackwater river on Earth -- it's certainly a lot darker than the famous Rio Negro in the Amazon.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2023

When winds were bearable, we sought bliss, sat, admired the aurora australis as an escape from our blackest abyss.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 19, 2023

She sorted through them carefully, and selected the oldest, biggest, blackest, rustiest key.They went into the drawing room.

From "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman

We couldn't see Ahmadzai because the car had blacked out windows.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

“But I’m so stoked that I got to go in. I blacked out, I don’t even know what I was thinking, I’m just glad I got to prove myself.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026

This president’s name is no mystery to readers, but perhaps out of legal caution it always appears blacked out, as though the novel were a redacted intelligence document.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026

Standing on third base with the Birmingham crowd roaring, Ruiz said, “Honestly, I didn’t know what was going on. I blacked out.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026

I tried to try to make a wisecrack about him mistaking me for a football, but blacked out before I could say it.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac

The high surf in California comes as another storm system, Hurricane Lowell, lashed Hawaii with damaging winds, heavy rainfall and powerful floods, blacking out power across most of one island.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

The Acton Town Council told the utilities commission in January that Edison was blacking out residents when dangerous conditions “do not exist.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2025

Mr Rogers, 20, passed away after blacking out during a swim training session at Armagh's Orchard Leisure Centre in April 2017.

From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2025

Those moderators have publicly protested earlier Reddit decisions, most recently blacking out much of the site for days when Reddit announced plans to start charging many third-party apps for access to its content.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 22, 2024

I recall the first instance where I fully credited his quick parts: I observed him blacking his master’s shoes.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Related Words

• ebony
• jet
• obsidian
• onyx
• pitch-black
• raven