black belt

black belt noun: the highest belt colour in various martial arts.

Noun (1)

black belt (plural black belts)

The highest belt colour in various martial arts.

Synonyms:

dan
Someone who has attained the black belt in martial arts.
- Raymond is a black belt in karate.
Synonyms:

dan
(colloquial, figuratively) Great skill in any field.
A senior manager who is expert in one of various management systems such as Six Sigma or DMAIC and acts in a project leader or mentor role.
- I had the good fortune of being engaged to participate as a trainer to GE Capital Corporation, where we helped to launch their now well-known and highly regarded black belt program.2011, Bob Paladino, Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management, →ISBN

black belt (plural black belts)

(Southern, US) A geographic region where the residents are predominantly or exclusively African-American.
- Bernard Cosman found that in Georgia, it was the black belt whites who gave Goldwater his largest percentage of the vote.1992, Hanes Walton, The Native Son Presidential Candidate: The Carter Vote in Georgia, →ISBN, page 5
A roughly crescent-shaped geological formation of dark fertile soil in the Southern United States.
- The Black Belt region, also called the Black Prairie, extends 300 miles across central Alabama and northeast Mississippi and into Tennessee. […] The dark soil for which the Black Belt was named was once famous for its richness and the abundant cotton produced in it.2014, Richard Pillsbury, editor, The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, volume 2, University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 157
- The most politically powerful southerners were those who hailed from the black belt region— distinguished by its dark and fertile soil—which contained the bulk of large-scale plantation and hence the highest percentage of slaves.2018, Seth C. McKee, The Dynamics of Southern Politics: Causes and Consequences, CQ Press, →ISBN, page 9

Black Belt (plural Black Belts)

Alternative letter-case form of black belt.
- Together they reveal a national culture split among three regions: cities and their suburbs; rural areas; and what we’re calling the extended Black Belt — a swath that extends from the Mississippi River along the Eastern Seaboard up to Washington, but also including city centers and other places...2016 December 27, Josh Katz, “‘Duck Dynasty’ vs. ‘Modern Family’: 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Calque of Japanese 黒帯 (kuroobi)

From black + belt, originally named after the dark soil.

What does black belt mean?: Black belt means the highest belt colour in various martial arts.
What is black belt in Marathi?: Black belt in Marathi is ब्लॅक बेल्ट (blĕk belṭa). See Black belt meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is black belt?: Black belt is a noun.
What is the plural of black belt?: The plural of black belt is black belts.

Adapted from Wiktionary: black belt (page history and authors); Black Belt (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “black belt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/black_belt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.