dark

American  

[dahrk] / dɑrk /

adjective

darker, darkest

1. having very little or no light.

   The movie projector works much better in a dark room.

2. radiating, admitting, or reflecting little light.

   A worm bin can be started in a 10-gallon plastic container in a dark color.

   Antonyms:

   bright

3. approaching black in hue.

   They stained the wood floor a dark brown.

4. not pale or fair in skin tone.

   My mother had a dark complexion, but my father's was lighter.

   Synonyms:

   black, dusky

5. brunette; brown or black.

   The man is described as 55 to 65 years old, with short gray hair and dark eyebrows.

6. having brown or black hair.

   She's dark but her children are blond.

7. (of food or drink, especially coffee beans) roasted, cooked, or toasted until near black in color: often used to describe the process itself.

   That brand of coffee is good, but I can't always find the dark roast.

8. (of coffee) containing only a small amount of milk or cream.

   We'll have two large coffees—one black, one dark and sweet.

9. evil; iniquitous; wicked.

   At the film's climax, the protagonist reveals a dark plot to assassinate the king.

10. gloomy; cheerless; dismal.

    He served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the dark days of World War II.

    Antonyms:

    cheerful

11. dealing with subject matter that is shocking, disturbing, or grim.

    This manga is a bit darker than the typical princess novel, as it has some scenes with gore.

12. sullen; frowning.

    With a dark expression, he demanded to know what she was doing.

    Antonyms:

    pleasant

13. hidden; secret.

14. hard to understand; obscure.

    Among the fragments left us by this poet, many lines are dark in meaning.

    Synonyms:

    abstruse, recondite

    Antonyms:

    clear

15. silent; reticent.

16. destitute of knowledge or culture; unenlightened.

17. (of a theater) offering no performances; closed.

    The theaters in this town are dark on Sundays.

18. Phonetics.

    1. (of an l- sound) having back-vowel resonance; situated after a vowel in the same syllable.

    2. (of a speech sound) of dull quality; acoustically damped.

---

noun

1. the absence of light; darkness.

   I can't see well in the dark.

2. night; nightfall.

   Please come home before dark.

3. a color close to black, or something having such a color.

   Black and white photography has lots of darks.

   For best results, wash darks separately from whites.

4. Archaic. a place that lacks light.

   Imagine diving into the dark of the sea and seeing a face emerge from the watery shadows.

verb (used with object)

1. to make dark; darken.

   The windows of the car had been darked, making it impossible to see inside.

verb (used without object)

1. Obsolete. to grow dark; darken.

idioms

1. in the dark,

   1. in ignorance; uninformed.

      He was in the dark about their plans for the evening.

   2. in secrecy; concealed; obscure.

2. go dark,

   1. to stop communicating, transmitting, or broadcasting.

      Thousands of websites went dark for a day to demonstrate that the bill would ruin the internet as we know it.

      I've tried to reach out, but he's gone dark and there's no contact.

   2. to shut down or stop operating; close, temporarily or permanently.

      The area is so depressed that more than half the restaurants in this county have gone dark in the past five years.

3. keep dark, to keep as a secret; conceal.

   They kept their political activities dark.

dark British  

/ dɑːk /

adjective

1. having little or no light

   a dark street

2. (of a colour) reflecting or transmitting little light Compare light 1 medium

   dark brown

3. 1. (of complexion, hair colour, etc) not fair or blond; swarthy; brunette

   2. ( in combination )

      dark-eyed

4. gloomy or dismal

5. sinister; evil

   a dark purpose

6. sullen or angry

   a dark scowl

7. ignorant or unenlightened

   a dark period in our history

8. secret or mysterious

   keep it dark

9. phonetics denoting an (l) pronounced with a velar articulation giving back vowel resonance. In English, l is usually dark when final or preconsonantal Compare light 1

10. informal stock exchange (of a company) to remove itself from the register of major exchanges while continuing to trade

---

noun

1. absence of light; darkness

2. night or nightfall

3. a dark place, patch, or shadow

4. a state of ignorance (esp in the phrase in the dark )

verb

1. an archaic word for darken

dark More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing dark

• in the dark
• keep someone in the dark
• leap in the dark
• shot in the dark
• whistle in the dark

---

Usage

What is a basic definition of dark? Dark describes something that lacks or has very little light. Dark is the absence of light. Dark also describes something that is depressing or evil. The word dark has several other senses as an adjective, noun, and a verb. If something is dark, it means that it has no light or has very small amounts of light. Real-life examples: If you turn the lights off in a room, the room becomes dark. When the sun sets at night, it becomes very dark outside. A dark alley has no streetlights, making it very hard to see anything. Used in a sentence: He used a flashlight to help him see in the dark cellar. In this sense, dark also refers to an absence of light. The dark is the deep blackness such as you see when you close your eyes. Real-life examples: Many children are afraid of the dark. It is usually a good idea not to wander outside in the dark because of nocturnal animals. Used in a sentence: The wolf ran into the cave and disappeared into the dark. Dark also describes something that is gloomy, depressing, or grim. You probably know some movies or books you would call dark because they don’t have a happy ending or are very depressing. Real-life examples: The stories of Edgar Allen Poe are usually dark, containing death and sad endings. Horror movies tend to be dark, as they are often full of depressing events and unhappy endings. Dark comedy uses depressing or sad topics to make tragicomedy. Used in a sentence: We went through some dark days after our friend died. Dark can also describe something that is evil or wicked. Real-life examples: Bad guys perform dark deeds. The heroes of stories will try to stop the dark plots of the villains. Used in a sentence: The heroine had an exciting sword fight with the dark lord in his evil lair.

Related Words

Dark, dim, obscure, gloomy, murky refer to absence or insufficiency of light. Dark implies a more or less complete absence of light: a dark night. Dim implies faintness of light or indistinctness of form (resulting from the lack of light or from imperfect vision): a dim outline. Obscure implies dimness that may arise also from factors that interfere with light or vision: obscure because of haze. Gloomy means cloudy, ill-lighted, dusky: a gloomy hall. Murky implies a thick or misty darkness: murky water.

Other Word Forms

• darkish adjective
• darkly adverb
• darkness noun
• nondark adjective
• predark adjective

Etymology

Origin of dark

First recorded before 1000; (for the adjective) Middle English derk, Old English deorc; (for the noun and verb) Middle English, derivative of the adjective; compare Middle High German terken “to darken, hide”

Explanation

When something's dark, there is no light. Far from the city lights, it gets so dark at night that you can see many stars in the sky. Dark comes from the Proto-Germanic word derkaz, which means "to hide or conceal." This meaning is preserved in the phrase kept in the dark, meaning purposely keeping information from someone. As an adjective, in addition to being the opposite of light, dark describes things that are gloomy, difficult to interpret or heavy, like a dark movie whose main character feels alienated from society.

Example Sentences

Others suggested Army Air Corps camouflage: dark olive drab, medium green, neutral gray.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

Apple’s iPod ads in the early 2000s that featured dark silhouettes with contrasting white headphones were also big hits.

From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026

Standard particle-based models of dark matter typically describe two main possibilities for how annihilation occurs.

From Science Daily • Apr. 10, 2026

Observations from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have revealed this unusual glow, which could be linked to dark matter.

From Science Daily • Apr. 10, 2026

I hissed one dark night when I knew that my restless tossing must be keeping her awake.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Related Words

• black
• cloudy
• darkened
• dim
• dingy
• drab
• dull
• foggy
• gloomy
• misty
• murky
• overcast
• shadowy
• somber