black

Meanings

Adjective

• Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
• Without light.
• Belonging to or descended from any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin.
• Designated for use by those ethnic groups.
• Of the spades or clubs suits. Compare red
• Bad; evil; ill-omened.
• Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen.
• Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
• Overcrowded.
• Without any cream, milk or creamer.
• Of or relating to the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the "black" set (in chess the set used by the player who moves second) .
• Said of a symbol or character that is solid, filled with color. Compare white.
• Related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.
• Clandestine; relating to a political, military, or espionage operation or site, the existence or details of which is withheld from the general public.
• Occult; relating to something (such as mystical or magical knowledge) which is unknown to or kept secret from the general public.
• Having one or more features (hair, fur, armour, clothes, bark, etc) that is dark (or black); in taxonomy, especially: dark in comparison to another species with the same base name.
• Foul; dirty.

Noun

• The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.
• A black dye or pigment.
• A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
• Black cloth hung up at funerals.
• A member of descendant of any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin.
• Blackness, the condition of belonging to or being descended from one of these ethnic groups.
• The black ball.
• The edge of home plate.
• A type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
• Blackcurrant syrup (in mixed drinks, e.g. snakebite and black, cider and black).
• The person playing with the black set of pieces.
• Something, or a part of a thing, which is black.
• A stain; a spot.
• A dark smut fungus, harmful to wheat.
• Marijuana.

Verb

• To make black; to blacken.
• To apply blacking to (something).
• To boycott, usually as part of an industrial dispute.

Related

Similar words

• dark, gloomy, pitch-black
• blacken, darken, swarten

Opposite words

• white, nonblack, unblack
• bright, illuminated, lit
• white

Origin

• From Middle English blak, black, blake, from Old English blæc ("black, dark", also "ink"), from Proto-West Germanic *blak, from Proto-Germanic *blakaz ("burnt") (compare Dutch blaken ("to burn"), Low German blak, black ("blackness, black paint, (black) ink"), Old High German blah ("black")), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- ("to burn, shine") (compare Latin flagro ("to burn"), Ancient Greek φλόξ, Sanskrit भर्ग ("radiance")). More at bleach.