black bile
noun
Simple meaning
A humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
blakbylSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblækˈbaɪl
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
historical
A humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy
Used this way, black bile is an older-sounding word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in historical writing and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Dated
- Connotation
- Old-fashioned
- Usage feel
- Dated in modern speech
Where it naturally appears
- Historical writing
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
This meaning still makes sense to most readers, but it sounds a generation behind current usage.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your 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 bile” 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.