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
For white authors and readers, Morrison argued, blackness has been more metaphoric than real, a signifier of certain behavioral expectations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
The amnesia conceit allows the film to highlight its artificiality: painted backdrops, stages that recede into blackness, supporting players recast in multiple roles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2025
All eyewitnesses like Samia* can say for certain is that the lights went out suddenly, plunging D Chowk, the square where they had gathered, into blackness.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2024
The two of them were eating a handful of pumpkin seeds, pitching the shells out the open window into the blackness.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
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.
