dark
adjective · noun · verb
Simple meaning
Having an absolute or relative lack of light.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dahrkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɑɹk
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.
adjective
Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
of a source of light
Extinguished.
Transmitting, reflecting, or receiving inadequate light to render timely discernment or comprehension
of colour
Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.
Marked by or conducted with secrecy.
Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malevolent, malign.
noun
Absence of light or illumination
A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.
A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc.
uncountable
Ignorance.
uncountable
Nightfall.
verb
intransitive
To grow or become dark, darken.
intransitive
To remain in the dark, lurk, lie hidden or concealed.
transitive
To make dark, darken; to obscure.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
Used this way, dark 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
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- 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 dark
- “He was in the dark concerning their intentions.”noun
- “Sitting in a dark corner.”adjective
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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.
Absence of light or illumination.
Without light.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A comedy characterized by grim or satiric humor.
Common North American junco having grey plumage and eyes with dark brown irises.
A form of microscopic examination of living material by scattered light.
Light microscope that uses scattered light to show particles too small to see with ordinary microscopes.
Spectacles that are darkened or polarized to protect the eyes from the glare of the sun.
A form of microscopic examination of living material by scattered light.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Become dark or darker.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.