blackmail
Syllables: black·mail/ˈblækˌmeɪl/
blackmail noun: the extortion of money or favors by threats of public accusation, critique, or exposure.
Noun
blackmail (uncountable)
- The extortion of money or favors by threats of public accusation, critique, or exposure.
- Compromising material that can be used to extort someone.
- A type of roleplay where the submissive shares information that may be exploited by the dominant.
- A form of protection money (or corn, cattle, etc.) anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to the allies of robbers in order to be spared from pillage.
- Black rent; rent paid in corn, meat, or the lowest coin, as opposed to white rent, which was paid in silver.
Verb
blackmail (third-person singular simple present blackmails, present participle blackmailing, simple past and past participle blackmailed)
- To extort money or favors from (a person) by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, such as injury to reputation, distress of mind, false accusation, etc.
- He blackmailed a businesswoman by threatening to expose an alleged fraud.
- To speak ill of someone; to defame someone.
blackmail meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
blackmail in Hindi
- extortion of money by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure
- भयादोहन bhayādohan, ब्लैकमेल blaikmel, धौंस dhauns
blackmail in Tamil
- அச்சுறுத்திப் பணம் பறி, மிரட்டிப் பறி, மிரட்டிப் பறிப்பு, அச்சவரி, கொள்ளைக்காரர் பிரிக்கும் காப்பு வரி
blackmail in Urdu
- extortion of money by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure
- بِلَیک میل bilaik mel, دَھون٘س dha͠us
blackmail in Bengali
- extortion of money by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure
- ব্ল্যাকমেইল blêkmeil
More languagesFewer languages
- blackmail in Malayalam
- ഭീഷണിപ്പിരിവ്, പിടിച്ചുപറി, കവർച്ച, കൊടുംകൊള്ള
- blackmail in Kannada
- ಬೆದರಿಕೆ ವಸೂಲಿ, ಹೆದರಿಸಿ ಹಣವನ್ನು ಕಿತ್ತುಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು, ಬೆದರಿಕೆ ಲಂಚ, ಬೆದರಿಕೆಯ ಒತ್ತಡ
- blackmail in Arabic
- اِبْتِزَاز ibtizāz, اِبْتِزَازَ ibtizāza
- blackmail in Malay
- peras ugut
- blackmail in Indonesian
- pemerasan
- blackmail in Thai
- การรีดเอาทรัพย์ gaan-rîit-ao-sáp, รีดเอาทรัพย์ rîit-ao-sáp, แบล็กเมล์ blɛ́k-mee
- blackmail in Vietnamese
- tống tiền, doạ tố giác
Examples of blackmail in a sentence
- My dear man, you ought to think twice about who you're trying to blackmail.
- A provisory guarantee is rather like blackmail.
- What she's asking is nothing short of blackmail.
Forms of blackmail
| third-person singular present | blackmails |
|---|---|
| present participle | blackmailing |
| past participle | blackmailed |
| past | blackmailed |
Origin of blackmail
From black + mail (“a piece of money”). Compare Middle English blak rente (“a type of blackmail levied by Irish chieftains”). The word is variously derived from the tribute paid by English and Scottish border dwellers to border reivers in return for immunity from raids and other harassment. This tribute was paid in goods or labour, in Latin reditus nigri (“black mail”); the opposite is blanche firmes or reditus albi (“white rent”), denoting payment by silver. McKay derives it from two Scottish Gaelic words blàthaich, pronounced (the th silent) bl-aich, "to protect" and màl (“tribute, payment”). He notes that the practice was common in the Scottish Highlands as well as the Borders. More likely, from black + Middle English mal, male, maile (“a payment, rent, tribute”), from Old English māl (“speech, contract, agreement, lawsuit, terms, bargaining”), from Old Norse mál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”); related to Old English mæðel (“meeting, council”), mæl (“speech”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌸𐌻 (maþl, “meeting place”), from Proto-Germanic *maþlą (“gathering, agreement”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to give advice, measure”). From the practice of freebooting clan chieftains who ran...
Words formed from blackmail
Questions about blackmail
- What does blackmail mean?
- Blackmail means the extortion of money or favors by threats of public accusation, critique, or exposure.
- What is blackmail in Hindi?
- Blackmail in Hindi is भयादोहन (bhayādohan), ब्लैकमेल (blaikmel), धौंस (dhauns). See Blackmail meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is blackmail?
- Blackmail can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce blackmail?
- Blackmail is pronounced /ˈblækˌmeɪl/.
Words near blackmail in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: blackmail (page history and authors); blackmail (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blackmail (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); blackmail (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-blackmail.wav.
Cite this entry: “blackmail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blackmail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.