blackness
US/ˈblæknəs/
blackness noun: the state or quality of being black in colour.
Noun (1)
blackness (usually uncountable, plural blacknesses)
- The state or quality of being black in colour.
- The blackness of outer space comes from the lack of anything to reflect light rather than the absence of light.
- The lights of Luluabourg disappeared, and we were in the blackness of the African night, which was continuously pierced by the showers of red sparks ejected skywards and red hot ashes deposited on the track as the fireman rocked his fire.1958 February, Arthur F. Beckenham, “A Journey in the Belgian Congo”, in Railway Magazine, page 93
- Any space that such colour pervades.
- Out of the blackness came some flickers of light.
- The guest room was full of the noise of the rain falling on fragrant branches in the framed blackness of the open window.1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 4.8, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 108
- Darkness, gloominess; depression.
- The quality of being evil or dismal.
- She had seen so much of the blacker side of human nature that blackness no longer startled her as it should do.1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1861, →OCLC
- The state of being of African descent.
- “Black Panther” is a stunning visual and cultural achievement that takes superhero cinema where it’s never gone before by not being afraid to embrace its blackness.2018 February 12, David Betancourt, “‘Black Panther’ fully embraces its blackness—and that's what makes it unforgettable”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 12 Feb 2018
- The experiences and culture of Black people.
Proper noun capitalized: Blackness
Blackness
- A suburb of Dundee, City of Dundee council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NO3830).
- A small coastal village in Falkirk council area, Scotland; a nearby headland is named Black Ness (OS grid ref NT0580).
- A hamlet in Westham parish, Wealden district, East Sussex, England (OS grid ref TQ6104).
- A suburb of Crowborough, Wealden district, East Sussex (OS grid ref TQ5230).
Noun (2) capitalized: Blackness
Blackness (uncountable)
- Alternative letter-case form of blackness (“state of being of African descent; culture of African-Americans”).
- It is Blackless, hence it shares that very quality, Blacklessness, with Whiteness; and it is Whiteless, hence it shares Whitelessness with Blackness.1999, Alfonso de Toro, Fernando de Toro, Jorge Luis Borges: Thought and Knowledge in the XXth Century, page 180
- Describes a person or thing that is authentic, the height of something, according to the authentic, natural, ‘keepin-it-real’ standards of Blackness that are believed to exist in ghetto communities. Also ghetto fab.2000, "Ghetto fabulous" in Geneva Smitherman, Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner, Houghton Mifflin Books, page 145
blackness meaning in Marathi, Bengali, Kannada and Punjabi
blackness in Marathi
- state or quality of being black
- काळेपणा kāḷepṇā, काळोख kāḷokh
blackness in Bengali
- কালোত্ব
blackness in Kannada
- ಕಪ್ಪುತನ
blackness in Punjabi
- state or quality of being black
- کالَکھ kālakh
More languagesFewer languages
- blackness in Gujarati
- કાળાપણું, કાળુંપણું
- blackness in Odia
- କଳାପଣ
- blackness in Nepali
- कालोपन
- blackness in Arabic
- سَوَاد sawād
- blackness in Thai
- ความดำ kwaam-dam
Examples of blackness in a sentence
- Claiming blackness allows her to connect her experience to other Afro-Latinas and have experiences of difference acknowledged.
- The interstellar craft sped through the vast blackness of deep space at incredible speed.
- She thought about the color black, the nature of blackness, and the in-betweeny shades therein.
Antonyms of blackness
Forms of blackness
| plural | blacknesses |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Blackness |
| alternative form (obsolete) | blacknesse |
Origin of blackness
Inherited from Middle English blaknesse, equivalent to black + -ness. Sense 5 most likely both originated from the masque The Masque of Blackness by Ben Jonson and later changed to its current positive sense.
From Black + -ness.
Words formed from blackness
- antiblackness
- blackness studies
- pitch blackness
- pitch-blackness
- political blackness
- postblackness
- problackness
Words that rhyme with blackness
Questions about blackness
- What does blackness mean?
- Blackness means the state or quality of being black in colour.
- What is blackness in Marathi?
- Blackness in Marathi is काळेपणा (kāḷepṇā), काळोख (kāḷokh). See Blackness meaning in Marathi.
- What part of speech is blackness?
- Blackness can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce blackness?
- Blackness is pronounced /ˈblæknəs/ (US).
- What is the plural of blackness?
- The plural of blackness is blacknesses.
Words near blackness in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: blackness (page history and authors); Blackness (page history and authors); blackness (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blackness (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blackness (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blackness (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blackness (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-blackness.wav.
Cite this entry: “blackness.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blackness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.