Etymology
Origin of blackness
A Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at black, -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.
"What struck me wasn't necessarily just Earth, it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe," said Koch.
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
Seeing our planet surrounded by the blackness of space "truly emphasised how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive," Koch said from space.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026
“This was a period in English culture before blackness acquired its fatal association with slavery,” he writes, identifying a “certain strain of indifference to color” in the thinking of the time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
“You turn off the lights and they just tumble into the blackness of space,” he told me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
Sergio felt his heart constrict with a terrible rage, a blackness that clogged his ears, like being underwater.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
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.
