black and white
black and white noun: a police patrol car.
Noun
black and white (plural black and whites)
- A police patrol car.
- [T]he news bunny ran up to him, saying, "Officer, did you have trouble catching up with Batman? Was it an exciting chase?" The surfer cop struck a semi-heroic pose for the camera and said, "Weak sauce." Then he quickly walked Batman to the black-and-white, where he was put into the backseat.2006, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station […], New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 237
- Synonyms:
- police vehicle
- The police, a police officer or the clothing they wear.
- Them punk motherfuckers in black and white ain't the only motherfuckers I gots to fight.1992, “A Nigga Witta Gun”, in The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre, Death Row Records
- A type of giant cookie (about eight inches in diameter) with icing on the top side: half white, half dark chocolate.
- Synonyms:
- half-moon
- A kind of ice cream soda with chocolate and vanilla flavors.
- Day and night (two very different things).
Adjective
black and white (comparative more black and white, superlative most black and white)
- Of art, a photograph or photography, using dots or lines that are either black or white (with no other values involved).
- Using Adobe Photoshop, he opened the images that were grayscale and converted them to be black and white.
- Of art, a photograph or photography, using shades of grey rather than shades of any other color.
- Their photos from that era are all black and white.
- Synonyms:
- grayscale, greyscale, monochrome
- Of a television or monitor, displaying images in shades of grey rather than color.
- The second segment is one of the most audacious and ambitious in “Treehouse Of Horror” history, and not just because it’s in black and white. It’s a parody of King Kong that works spectacularly well because Homer isn’t just ape-like and simian on the inside: he’s ape-like and simian on the outside...2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
- Classifying people, objects or concepts as two polar opposites, especially "right" and "wrong"; dichotomous and inflexible.
- I wish she weren't always so black and white about every single thing.
- The pseudo-community of enemies in The Day the Earth Stood Still consists of politicians, the military, and businessmen, whereas the pseudo-community of friends, the element that complements the enemies and reinforces the black-and-white morality of paranoia (Cameron, "Revisited" 56), is composed...1999, Cynthia Hendershot, Paranoia, the Bomb, and 1950s Science Fiction Films, Popular Press, →ISBN, page 28
- Easily divided into diametrically opposing categories.
- Near-synonym: night-and-day
- Synonyms:
- night-and-day
black and white meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
black and white in Tamil
- அச்சு, எழுத்துவடிவு, கறுப்பு வெளுப்பு
black and white in Malayalam
- monochrome, greyscale
- കറുപ്പും വെളുപ്പുമായ, ഒറ്റവർണ്ണത്തിലുള്ള, ഏകവർണ്ണമായ, ഏകവർണ്ണചിത്രമായ, ധൂസരവർണ്ണമായ
- printed, in print, written down
- അച്ചടിച്ച, ലിഖിതരൂപത്തിലുള്ള, വ്യക്തമായി എഴുതിയ രൂപത്തിലുള്ള, എഴുതിവച്ച, കടലാസിലെഴുതിയ, എഴുതപ്പെട്ട
- unequivocal, categorical, absolute
- ഖണ്ഡിതമായ, സ്പഷ്ടമായ, നിയതാർത്ഥമായ, നിസ്സന്ദേഹമായ, അസന്ദിഗ്ദ്ധമായ, വിട്ടുവീഴ്ചയില്ലാത്ത
Synonyms of black and white
- police vehicle
- half-moon
- grayscale
- greyscale
- monochrome
- night-and-day
Forms of black and white
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | black and whites |
| alternative form | black-and-white |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more black and white |
| superlative | most black and white |
Origin of black and white
The police car sense reflects a traditional livery scheme for such cars.
Questions about black and white
- What does black and white mean?
- Black and white means a police patrol car.
- What is black and white in Tamil?
- Black and white in Tamil is அச்சு, எழுத்துவடிவு, கறுப்பு வெளுப்பு. See Black and white meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is black and white?
- Black and white can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of black and white?
- The plural of black and white is black and whites.
Words near black and white in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: black and white (page history and authors); black and white (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); black and white (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-black and white.ogg.
Cite this entry: “black and white.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/black_and_white. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.