Black definition

Black as an 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"

2. of or belonging to a racial group especially of sub-Saharan African origin

   "a great people — a black people — … injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization"

3. marked by anger or resentment or hostility

   "black looks"

4. offering little or no hope

   "the future looked black"

   Same sense: dim, bleak

5. stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable

   "black deeds"

   Same sense: dark, sinister

6. (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin

   "the stock market crashed on Black Friday"

   Same sense: fatal, disastrous, fateful, calamitous

7. (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood

   "a face black with fury"

   Same sense: blackened

8. extremely dark

   "a black moonless night"

   Same sense: pitch-black, pitch-dark

9. harshly ironic or sinister

   "black humor"

   Same sense: grim, mordant

10. (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading

    "black propaganda"

11. distributed or sold illicitly

    "the black economy pays no taxes"

    Same sense: black-market, smuggled, contraband, bootleg

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"

    Same sense: shameful, disgraceful, inglorious, ignominious, opprobrious

13. (of coffee) without cream or sugar

14. soiled with dirt or soot

    "with feet black from playing outdoors"

    Same sense: smutty

Black as a noun

15. the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white)

    Same sense: blackness, inkiness

16. total absence of light

    "in the black of night"

    Same sense: total darkness, blackness, pitch blackness, lightlessness

17. (board games) the darker pieces

18. black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning)

    "the widow wore black"

Black as a verb

19. make or become black

    "The smoke blackened the ceiling"

    Same sense: blacken, melanize, melanise

Synonyms and antonyms

• dim
• bleak
• dark
• sinister
• fatal
• disastrous
• fateful
• calamitous
• blackened
• pitch-black
• pitch-dark
• grim
• mordant
• black-market
• smuggled
• contraband
• bootleg
• shameful
• disgraceful
• inglorious
• ignominious
• opprobrious
• smutty
• blackness

Opposite: white.

All synonyms of black, sense by sense

How to say black

Black has 1 syllable and rhymes with back. Syllable counts and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.

Words that rhyme with black

• back
• attack
• track
• lack
• jack
• pack
• mac
• crack
• feedback
• comeback
• hack
• stack

BLACK in word games

Scrabble

13

Words With Friends

16

Anagrams

0

Is BLACK a valid Scrabble word? Yes, it is in the ENABLE list most word games use. Check BLACK in the word checker, or unscramble BLACK to see the shorter words in its letters.