black meaning and definition

BLACK noun

Definition of black (noun)

1. the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white)
   • synonyms: blackness, inkiness
   • antonym: white
2. total absence of light
   • "they fumbled around in total darkness"; "in the black of night"
   • synonyms: blackness, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness
3. British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799)
   • synonyms: Joseph Black
4. popular child actress of the 1930's (born in 1928)
   • synonyms: Shirley Temple, Shirley Temple Black
5. a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa)
   • synonyms: Black person, blackamoor, Negro, Negroid
6. (board games) the darker pieces
   • antonym: white
7. black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning)
   • "the widow wore black"

BLACK verb

Definition of black (verb)

1. make or become black
   • "The smoke blackened the ceiling"; "The ceiling blackened"
   • synonyms: blacken, melanise, melanize, nigrify
   • antonym: white

BLACK adjective

Definition of black (adjective)

1. being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
   • "black leather jackets"; "as black as coal"; "rich black soil"
   • antonym: white
2. of or belonging to a racial group having dark skin especially of sub-Saharan African origin
   • "a great people--a black people--...injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization"- Martin Luther King Jr.
   • antonym: white
3. marked by anger or resentment or hostility
   • "black looks"; "black words"
4. offering little or no hope
   • "the future looked black"; "prospects were bleak"; "Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge; "took a dim view of things"
   • synonyms: bleak, dim
5. stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable
   • "black deeds"; "a black lie"; "his black heart has concocted yet another black deed"; "Darth Vader of the dark side"; "a dark purpose"; "dark undercurrents of ethnic hostility"; "the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him"-Thomas Hardy
   • synonyms: dark, sinister
6. (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin
   • "the stock market crashed on Black Friday"; "a calamitous defeat"; "the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign"; "such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory"- Charles Darwin; "it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it"- Douglas MacArthur; "a fateful error"
   • synonyms: calamitous, disastrous, fatal, fateful
7. (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood
   • "a face black with fury"
   • synonyms: blackened
8. extremely dark
   • "a black moonless night"; "through the pitch-black woods"; "it was pitch-dark in the cellar"
   • synonyms: pitch-black, pitch-dark
9. harshly ironic or sinister
   • "black humor"; "a grim joke"; "grim laughter"; "fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit"
   • synonyms: grim, mordant
10. (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading
    • "black propaganda"
11. distributed or sold illicitly
    • "the black economy pays no taxes"
    • synonyms: black-market, bootleg, contraband, smuggled
12. (used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing disgrace or shame
    • "Man...has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands"- Rachel Carson; "an ignominious retreat"; "inglorious defeat"; "an opprobrious monument to human greed"; "a shameful display of cowardice"
    • synonyms: disgraceful, ignominious, inglorious, opprobrious, shameful
13. (of coffee) without cream or sugar
14. soiled with dirt or soot
    • "with feet black from playing outdoors"; "his shirt was black within an hour"
    • synonyms: smutty