Word.ws English Dictionary

Black Irish

Black Irish noun: an Irish citizen with African ancestry. Also the alternative letter-case form of black Irish.

Noun (1)

Black Irish (plural Black Irish)

  1. An Irish citizen with African ancestry.

Noun (2) capitalized: black Irish

black Irish (plural black Irish)

  1. An Irish person or person of Irish descent with dark hair, eyes, and skin.
    • The same usage still prevails among the vulgar as in the phrases, ‘black Irish’, ‘black Dutch’, describing certain well known types of Celts and Teutons (Hollanders, probably), differing widely from the prevailing type of either race in respect of their black eyes and hair, and gypsy-like, tawny...1875 December, American Bibliopolist, p. 260
    • Those are the Black Oirish an' 'tis they that bring dishgrace upon the name av Oireland.1888, Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Soldiers Three, page 84

Also used as

Black Irish is also the alternative letter-case form of black Irish.

Forms of Black Irish

pluralBlack Irish
pluralblack Irish
alternative formBlack Irish

Questions about Black Irish

What does Black Irish mean?
Black Irish means an Irish citizen with African ancestry.
What part of speech is Black Irish?
Black Irish is a noun.
What is the plural of Black Irish?
The plural of Black Irish is Black Irish.

Words near Black Irish in the dictionary

  1. black imported fire ants
  2. black in
  3. black in the face
  4. black information
  5. Black International
  6. Black Irish
  7. black iron
  8. Black Isle
  9. black ivory
  10. black jack
  11. black jacks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Black Irish (page history and authors); black Irish (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.

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Cite this entry: “Black Irish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/black_irish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.