Word.ws English Dictionary

blank

/blænk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/blaŋk/

blank adjective: white or pale; without colour. Also the ellipsis of blank cartridge.

Adjective

blank (comparative blanker or more blank, superlative blankest or most blank)

  1. (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
    • To the blanc Moone / Her office they preſcrib'd,1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  2. Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in.
    • blank paper
    • a blank check
  3. (figuratively) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.
    • a blank desert; a blank wall; blank unconsciousness
    • Not a cloud in the blank blue sky.
  4. Abject; absolute; complete; downright; sheer; utter.
    • a blank refusal to cooperate
    • There was a look of blank terror on his face.
  5. (figuratively) Without expression, usually because of incomprehension.
    • a blank glassy look
    • Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.
  6. Utterly confounded or discomfited.
    • Adam […] Aſtonied ſtood and Blank,1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
  7. Empty; void; without result; fruitless; futile.
    • a blank day
  8. Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.
    • The shock left his memory blank.
  9. Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.
    • The recruits were issued blank rounds for a training exercise.

Noun

blank (plural blanks)

  1. (archaic, historical, obsolete) A small French coin, originally of silver, afterwards of copper, worth 5 deniers; also a silver coin of Henry V current in the parts of France then held by the English, worth about 8 pence.
    • Whosoeuer brought a fagot before the kynges tent, he shulde haue a blanke of Fraunce.1523, Jean Froissart, transl. by John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Cronycles of Englande, Fraunce etc.
  2. (obsolete) A nonplus.
  3. The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim.
    • Des. […] And stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech! (Act III, scene 11)1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
    • Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye. (Act I, scene 2)1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear
  4. A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated.
    • […] and in Fortune's Lottery lies / A heap of Blanks, like this, for one ſmall Prize.1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Thomas Creech, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together...
  5. A space to be filled in on a form or template.
    • Write your answers in the blanks.
  6. Provisional words printed in italics (instead of blank spaces) in a bill before Parliament, being matters of practical detail, of which the final form is to be settled in committee.
  7. (US) A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled in at the pleasure of the person to whom it is given (e.g. a blank charter, ballot, form, contract, etc.), or as the event may determine; a blank form.
    • […] and the freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank.1859, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, volume 1
    1. (US) An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all.
    2. (US) An unprinted leaf of a book.
  8. Blank verse.
  9. Any article of glass on which subsequent processing is required.
  10. (electric recording) The shaved wax ready for placing on a recording machine for making wax records with a stylus.
  11. (figuratively) A vacant space, place, or period; a void.
    • Du. And what's her hiſtory?
      Vio. A blanke my Lord:c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  12. The ¹ / ₂₃₀₄₀₀ of a grain.
Show 8 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory.
    • My head is so ill that I cannot write a paper full as I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.1736, Jonathan Swift, Letters
    • From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
  2. A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word.
  3. The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space bar on a keyboard.
  4. A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.
    • the double blank
    • the six blank
  5. (Words With Friends) A tile that can be played as any letter and having a point value of zero.
  6. (figuratively) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.
  7. (figuratively, slang) Infertile semen.
  8. Used as a substitute for a profanity.
    • The Beatles have fabulous music, a tough sound! Who gives a blank if they can read music!1965 January, Lou Sullivan, Letter to Keen Teen (unpublished, preserved in personal diary)

Verb

blank (third-person singular simple present blanks, present participle blanking, simple past and past participle blanked)

  1. (transitive) To make void; to erase.
    • I blanked out my previous entry.
  2. (slang, transitive) To ignore (a person) deliberately.
    • She blanked me for no reason.
    • Taylor Swift goes viral for blanking Celine Dion on stage at Grammys 2024 […] Taylor Swift received backlash for being 'disrespectful' by 'ignoring' Celine Dion while accepting the award for Album of the Year at the Grammys on Sunday.2024 February 4, Sonia Horon, “Taylor Swift goes viral for BLANKING Celine Dion on stage at Grammys 2024 after diva emerges from battle with stiff-person syndrome to present her with historic Album...
  3. (transitive) To render ineffective by blanketing with turbulent airflow, such as from aircraft wake or reverse thrust.
    • At high angles of attack, the shuttle’s rudder is blanked by the fuselage and wings, forcing it to use its RCS thrusters for yaw control.
  4. (transitive) To prevent from scoring; for example, in a sporting event.
    • The team was blanked.
    • England blanks Wales to advance to the final.
  5. (intransitive) To become blank.
    • In OPS 6, the 2 EO color field does blank at SSME fine count. Once in fine count in route to an RTLS MECO, the energy state is such that one engine can carry the orbiter though powered pitch-down to a healthy MECO condition with standard RTLS guidance.2007 February 14, NASA, “4.5.2 Two-Engine-Out Contingency Software Termination”, in Contingency Aborts 21007/31007, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2022, page 45
  6. (informal, intransitive) To experience a temporary lapse of memory; to be temporarily unable to remember a particular fact. (Commonly used in the first person, present progressive tense, and commonly followed by on to create a transitive phrasal verb.)
    • I’m blanking on her name right now.
    • She asked him a simple question during the interview, and he blanked.

Proper noun capitalized: Blank

Blank

  1. A surname.
    • The same preoccupation with developing a conceptual framework is evident in David Blank's Venezuela: Politics in a Petroleum Republic, a modified version of Blank's early theses.1987, Latin American Research Review, page 238
  2. (dated) Used as an anonymous placeholder for a person's name.
    • Miss Compton, in 'Other People's Worries,' asks rhetorically whether a young rip was not in the Blank divorce case.1922, The Saturday Review, volume 133, page 359

Also used as

blank is also the ellipsis of blank cartridge.

blank meaning in Sinhala, Arabic, Indonesian and Vietnamese

blank in Sinhala

free from writing, printing or marks
හිස්තැන histæna

blank in Arabic

free from writing, printing or marks
خَالٍ ḵālin, اَلْخَالِي al-ḵālī, فَارِغ fāriḡ

blank in Indonesian

space to be filled in on a form or template
isian
simulation cartridge
peluru kosong

blank in Vietnamese

(archaic) without color
trắng, để trắng
free from writing, printing or marks
trống, trắng, để trống, để trắng
of ammunition
mã tử
void space on a paper
khoảng trống, chỗ để trống

Examples of blank in a sentence

  • Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank.2011 December 27, Mike Henson, “Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport:
  • I can't tell how long — it was a blank. […]”1863, George Eliot, Romola:

All 40 example sentences with blank

Synonyms of blank

All synonyms of blank

Forms of blank

Adjective
comparativeblanker
comparativemore blank
superlativeblankest
superlativemost blank
Noun
pluralblanks
Verb
third-person singular presentblanks
present participleblanking
past participleblanked
pastblanked

Past tense of blank: blanked

Plural of blank: blanks

Origin of blank

From Middle English blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Anglo-Norman blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Old French blanc, feminine blanche, from Frankish *blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). Akin to Old High German blanch (“shining, bright, white”) (German blank), Old English blanc (“white, grey”), blanca (“white steed”), Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. Doublet of blanc.

* As a Dutch and German surname, from the adjective blank (“shining, pale, white”). * As an English and Jewish surname, spelling variant of Blanc, Blanck.

Words formed from blank

Phrases with blank

13 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with blank

34 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about blank

What does blank mean?
Blank means white or pale; without colour.
What is blank in Sinhala?
Blank in Sinhala is හිස්තැන (histæna). See Blank meaning in Sinhala.
How do you use blank in a sentence?
Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank.
What part of speech is blank?
Blank can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce blank?
Blank is pronounced /blænk/ (UK).

Words near blank in the dictionary

  1. Blanfords
  2. Blang
  3. blanid
  4. blanids
  5. blanja
  6. blank
  7. blank bullet
  8. blank bullets
  9. blank canvas
  10. blank canvases
  11. blank canvasses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blank (page history and authors); Blank (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-blank.wav, En-au-blank.ogg.

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