darkness
Americannoun
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darkness
plural
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the state or quality of being dark.
The room was in total darkness.
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absence or deficiency of light.
the darkness of night.
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wickedness or evil.
Satan, the prince of darkness.
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obscurity; concealment.
The darkness of the metaphor destroyed its effectiveness.
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lack of knowledge or enlightenment.
heathen darkness.
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lack of sight; blindness.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of darkness
First recorded before 1050; Middle English derknesse, Old English deorcnysse; equivalent to dark + -ness
Explanation
The complete (or partial) absence of light is darkness. If you've ever lost power in your house during a nighttime storm, you know what it's like to be suddenly engulfed in darkness. There are degrees of darkness, from the complete darkness of the woods on a moonless night to the darkness of a room lit by candlelight. Darkness is open to interpretation, since it's defined as a lack of light. There's also a figurative darkness, which can represent wickedness, sadness, ignorance, or simply mystery: "The details of their adventures would remain in darkness, unless one of them wrote a book someday."
Vocabulary lists containing darkness
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.
An 18th-century British levy targeted people of means and plunged the poor into darkness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
"That means a lot of light and a lot of humour, but also a lot of darkness, which I think Scotland represents very well," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
After her death, he received a note from another teen who said she’d shown him kindness in a moment of darkness, which he credited with saving his life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
She packed up her two worn decks of tarot cards, some small carved stone figurines and headed for home before the darkness swallowed Old Havana again.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Everyone on that road knew that there was safety in that darkness.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
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.
