Synonyms for darken
Synonyms by meaning
Verb
1. Blacken — to make foul; to sully; to tarnish
blacken, tarnish, black, stain, shade, dim, discolor US, discolour UK, obfuscate, smudge, blot, sully, smear, dirty, besmirch, soil, denigrate, slur, smut, smooch, smouch US, smirch, besmear, befoul
2. Bring down — to render gloomy, darker in mood
bring down, depress, oppress, dash, mortify, dispirit, deject, dull, desolate, sadden up rare, sadden rare, begloom dated rare
Definitions
- v. 1
To render gloomy, darker in mood.
- v. 2
To blind, impair the eyesight.
- v. 3
To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible.
- v. 4
To make foul; to sully; to tarnish.
Forms
- Past participle
- darkened
e.g. darkened → blackened, tarnished, blacked, stained…
Example sentences
- shade The thin man took a rest in the shade of a shrine.
- tarnish Sami was trying to tarnish Layla's reputation.
- smudge There was a smudge of lipstick on his cheek, and his tie was loose.
- blacken Don't blacken the fridge with your dirty fingers.
- depress Rain doesn't depress people who like reading.
By length
- 3 letters
- fog1, dim1
- 4 letters
- soil1, sink1, dash1, dull1, mist1, dusk1, slur1, blot1, smut1
- 5 letters
- black1, dirty2, cloud1, shade1, stain1, smear1, mourn1, gloom1, sully2, yearn1, bedim
- 6 letters
- shadow2, expire2, grieve1, smudge1, smooch1, sadden2, befoul, smirch, deject2, smouch, darkle, bedark
- 7 letters
- obscure2, eclipse2, tarnish2, depress2, oppress2, blacken2, mortify3, becloud, besmear, begloom, inblind, beblind, blinden, swarten
- 8 letters
- desolate3, discolor3, besmirch, dispirit, bedarken
- 9 letters
- denigrate3, obfuscate3, discolour, adumbrate, exoculate, obumbrate
- 10 letters
- obnubilate
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (dirty2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- obscurcir
- Deutsch
- verdunkeln