darkroom
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of darkroom
Explanation
A darkroom is the room a film photographer uses to develop photographs. A typical darkroom is equipped with developing chemicals, an enlarger, and a red-tinted safelight that doesn't expose black-and-white film. There are so many options for photography these days that using a darkroom is less and less common — digital and Polaroid-style, instant photos don't require developing. Most darkrooms are kept by photographers who work with black-and-white film. In the darkroom, the enlarger projects an image from a negative onto photographic paper, which is then immersed in a developer chemical wash and a fixer wash, and hung to dry. This results in a finished product, a photograph.
Vocabulary lists containing darkroom
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ms. Ditner has a wall text explaining how Smith worked in his darkroom “so that his final print reflected not what the negative recorded but what he had witnessed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
His Regen show, through March 1, also features short video works and the abstractions of camera-less images he considers “pure photography,” created in the darkroom by shining light directly onto photosensitive paper.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
He particularly appreciated his crewmate McDiarmid, who liked to play her saxophone in the ship’s theater, right next to his darkroom.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025
Chemical Unbalance uses the chemistry of the darkroom and the menopausal body as a way of exploring the changes occurring, without and within.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2024
"He's been snooping around my darkroom, going through my things, and eating my chocolates."
From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
