Word
blackness
Phoneticsblack·ness
US/ˈbɫæknəs/
UK/blˈæknəs/
Definition
n. the state of being completely black or very dark. You use it to describe a place where there is no light at all.
n. the quality or state of being black; the total absence of light or color.
Examples
“The thick clouds turned the sky into total blackness.”
“When the power failed in the basement, we were suddenly surrounded by absolute blackness.”
“The deep-sea explorer stared into the blackness of the ocean floor, where the sun's rays had not reached for millions of years.”
Examples
simple
“The thick clouds turned the sky into total blackness.”
contextual
“When the power failed in the basement, we were suddenly surrounded by absolute blackness.”
complex
“The deep-sea explorer stared into the blackness of the ocean floor, where the sun's rays had not reached for millions of years.”
Usage
Often used with adjectives like 'absolute', 'total', or 'complete' to emphasize the lack of light.
Real-World Examples
“I decided the project had to be a rap album, in part, to highlight how Blackness is read as a set of appeals that are offered through music, speech, form and more.” Etymology
Inherited from Middle English blaknesse, equivalent to black + -ness. Sense 5 most likely both originated from the masque The Masque of Blackness by Ben Jonson and later changed to its current positive sense.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/blackness