darkness
Americannoun
-
the state or quality of being dark.
The room was in total darkness.
-
absence or deficiency of light.
the darkness of night.
-
wickedness or evil.
Satan, the prince of darkness.
-
obscurity; concealment.
The darkness of the metaphor destroyed its effectiveness.
-
lack of knowledge or enlightenment.
heathen darkness.
-
lack of sight; blindness.
Other Word Forms
- predarkness noun
Etymology
Origin of darkness
First recorded before 1050; Middle English derknesse, Old English deorcnysse; equivalent to dark + -ness
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.
Silva Gu's eyes dart back and forth across miles of tall grassland, scouring it for signs of life in the darkness.
From BBC
"I was waking up to darkness and cold. It was quite a lonely existence because all my friends were working so hard," he says.
From BBC
In a separate experiment, the same nanodots broke down a blue dye by 90 percent in just 20 minutes, demonstrating how powerful their chemical reactions can be even in complete darkness.
From Science Daily
Some parts of the country have been left in total darkness for days.
On Tuesday, Brand posted a selfie video of himself driving while telling followers, “This is a time of great darkness.”
From Los Angeles Times
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.
