Black Definition
blăk
blacked, blackest, blacking, blacks, blacker
adjective
blackest, blacker
Being of the color black, producing or reflecting comparatively little light and having no predominant hue.
American Heritage
Opposite to white; of the color of coal or pitch.
Webster's New World
Having little or no light.
A black, moonless night.
American Heritage
Designating or of any of the dark-skinned traditional inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, or Melanesia or their descendants in other parts of the world.
Webster's New World
Of or belonging to a racial group having brown to black skin, especially one of African origin.
The black population of South Africa.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
noun
blacks
The achromatic color value of minimum lightness or maximum darkness; the color of objects that absorb nearly all light of all visible wavelengths; one extreme of the neutral gray series, the opposite being white. Although strictly a response to zero stimulation of the retina, the perception of black appears to depend on contrast with surrounding color stimuli.
American Heritage
Black color.
Webster's New World
A pigment or dye having this color value.
American Heritage
A black pigment, paint, or dye.
Webster's New World
Complete or almost complete absence of light; darkness.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
- black woman
- colored man
- colored-person
- african
- person-of-color
- african-american
- Black person
- blood
- soul-sister
- soul-brother
- afro-american
- colored woman
- sable
- jet
- carbon
Antonyms:
verb
blacked, blacking
To make black.
Blacked their faces with charcoal.
American Heritage
To make black; blacken.
Webster's New World
To apply blacking to.
Blacked the stove.
American Heritage
To polish with blacking.
Webster's New World
To boycott as part of a labor union action.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
idiom
black out
- to cover (writing, printing, etc.) with black pencil marks or paint
- to cause a blackout in
Webster's New World
in the black
- operating at a profit
Webster's New World
into the black
- into a profitable condition financially
Webster's New World
Other Word Forms of Black
Noun
Singular:
blackPlural:
blacksAdjective
Base Form:
black
Comparative:
blackerSuperlative:
blackestIdioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Black
- black out
- in the black
- into the black
Origin of Black
-
From Middle English black, blak, blake, from Old English blæc (“black, dark", also "ink”), from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burnt”) (compare Dutch blaken (“to burn”), Old High German blah (“black”), Old Norse blakra (“to blink”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- (“to burn, shine”) (compare Latin flagrāre (“to burn”), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlox, “flame”), Albanian blozë (“soot”), Sanskrit bharga 'radiance' [script?]). More at bleach.
From Wiktionary
-
Middle English blak from Old English blæc bhel-1 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Related Articles
Find Similar Words
Find similar words to black using the buttons below.