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.
Obviously, and he had some darkness in him; he came back from World War II really scarred, couldn’t really deal with it . . . but he was also a very outgoing guy.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
“Because ending things in darkness isn’t good for anyone.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
But if “The PTL Club” capitalized on the wealthier-the-better ethos of the 1980s, Bakker’s new show was filled with post-9/11 darkness and apocalyptic visions of what was to come.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Halzen's great leap was to use ice instead -- unlike liquid water, it isn't disturbed by living creatures, and its darkness is constant at great depth.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
I call the dogs to increase speed and we run through the rest of the darkness and at dawn I see a cabin which signals the end of the Burn.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
