Synonyms for black
- adjective
- verb
- noun
Most common
raven ebony inky swarthy inglorious pitch-dark black-market blackened
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Negro — without light
dusky, inky, raven, swarthy, ebony, dirty, sable, murky, dim, somber US, sombre UK, gloomy, infernal, dingy, sunless, pitchy, bleak, obscure, hopeless, hellish, unclean, stygian, darkling
2. Evil
evil, wicked, monstrous, outrageous, heinous, shameful, atrocious, disgraceful, inglorious, ignominious, flagitious formal rare, opprobrious rare
3. Pitch-dark — absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless
dark, pitch-dark, pitch-black, swart, sinister, ebon formal
4. Unfortunate
Other
blackened, angry, black-market, grim, wrathful, bootleg, contraband US, smutty, morbid, mordant, lowering, atramentous rare
Verb
1. Blacken — to make black; to blacken
blacken, stain, darken, denigrate, swarten rare, melanise rare
Noun
1. Blackness — blackness, the condition of belonging to or being descended from one of these ethnic groups
blackness, pitch blackness, inkiness rare, lightlessness rare
Other
colored US, coloured UK, black-a-moor, mourning, negroid vulgar dated
Definitions
- adj. 1
Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
The items around him were black in colour.
- adj. 2
Without light.
- v. 1
To make black; to blacken.
- n. 1
Blackness, the condition of belonging to or being descended from one of these ethnic groups.
Related words
Choose the right word
Strictly, that which is black is absolutely destitute of color; that which is dark is absolutely destitute of light. In common speech, however, a coat is black, tho not optically colorless; the night is dark, tho the stars shine.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- raven It's not a raven, a crow, nor a magpie. It's a rook.
- ebony The cat's fur shimmered with a deep ebony hue.
- inky The night was tranquil, the sky clear and inky black.
- swarthy Even swarthy and deformed, he struts around!
- inglorious Only miserable and inglorious death awaits you here.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| black | rising | |
| raven | rising | |
| ebony | rising | |
| inky | rising | |
| swarthy | rising | |
| inglorious | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- dim1
- 4 letters
- dark1, evil2, grim1, inky2, ebon
- 5 letters
- angry2, dirty2, fatal2, raven2, stain1, bleak1, ebony3, murky2, sable2, dusky, dingy2, swart1
- 6 letters
- wicked2, gloomy2, morbid2, somber2, darken2, sombre, smutty2, pitchy
- 7 letters
- colored2, obscure2, boycott2, heinous2, unclean2, fateful2, bootleg2, hellish2, sunless, swarthy2, mordant2, blacken2, stygian3, negroid2
- 8 letters
- coloured2, lowering3, hopeless2, mourning2, shameful2, sinister3, infernal3, wrathful, darkling, melanise, inkiness
- 9 letters
- monstrous2, atrocious3, blacklist2, blackness2, blackened2, denigrate3, blackball2
- 10 letters
- outrageous3, disastrous3, contraband3, inglorious4, calamitous4, flagitious
- 11 letters
- unfortunate4, disgraceful3, ignominious5, opprobrious, atramentous
- 13 letters
- lightlessness
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (evil2 = 2 syllables).