black
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
The darkest color, like coal or a night sky without light.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
blakIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblæk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The darkest color, like coal or a night sky without light.
countable and uncountable
The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.
countablebritish
A type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
Alternative letter-case form of black ("person having dark pigmentation of the skin").
Total absence of light
countable
A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
adjective
of an object
Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
of a location or setting
Without light.
sometimes capitalized
Belonging to or descended from any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc.) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin.
USUKSouth Africa
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"- Martin Luther King Jr.”
Bad; evil; ill-omened.
Expressing menace or discontent; threatening; sullen.
verb
britishtransitive
To boycott, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
Make or become black
transitive
To make black; to blacken.
transitive
To apply blacking to (something).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: the darkest color, like coal or a night sky without light.
Used this way, black is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use black
- “A great people--a black people--...injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization"- Martin Luther King Jr.”adjective
- “Black leather jackets.”adjective
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A list of people who are out of favor.
The electromagnetic radiation that would be radiated from an ideal black body.
White gull having a black back and wings.
A hypothetical object capable of absorbing all the electromagnetic radiation falling on it.
Common birch of the eastern United States having spicy brown bark yielding a volatile oil and hard dark wood used for furniture.
Vigorous spreading North American tree having dark brown heavy wood.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Large sweet black or very dark purple edible aggregate fruit of any of various bushes of the genus Rubus.
Black-and-white North American wood warbler having an orange-and-black head and throat.
Any bird of the family Icteridae whose male is black or predominantly black.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: absorbing all light and reflecting none
Antonyms
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “black” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.