Word.ws English Dictionary

dark ages

/ˈdɑːˌkeɪd͡ʒɪz/

dark ages is the alternative letter-case form of Dark Ages.

dark ages is the plural of dark age.

Meaning of dark age

Noun

dark age (plural dark ages)

  1. A time period characterized by ignorance, decline, stagnation, and/or conflict and turmoil.
    • It is not becoming in us to cast reproach upon those who lived in the daybreak of a dark age, for not seeing clearly all that we see in the more perfect day.1849, Jonathan Crane, A Historical Sketch of the Second Congregational Church in Attleborough, page 44
  2. A time period about which there is very little information.
    • But if by a dark age you mean an age concerning which we are altogether in the dark ; and as , in applying this to our own , the Subject and Object , we and the age become identical and commutable terms ; I bid adieu to all reasoning by implication, to all legerdemain of inferential logic, and at...1884, The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Volume 4, page 441

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Dark Ages

the Dark Ages

  1. The period of European history encompassing (roughly) 476–1000 CE.
    • There is one very real sense in which the Dark Ages were the brightest of times, and it is this: that they were times of defined and definite duties and freedoms.2001 December, Gene Wolfe, “The Best Introduction to the Mountains”, in David Pringle, editor, Interzone, number 174, →ISSN, page 49
  2. (Ancient Greece) The Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100–750 BCE).
  3. The dark ages of Cambodia (c. 1450–1863).
  4. The dark ages of Laos (c. 1707–1893).
  5. The Dark Ages, 380 thousand to about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
  6. (figuratively) Any relatively primitive period of time.
    • It is clear that many linguists view connectionism as a revival of the radical empiricist approach that dominated the dark ages in psychology—the behaviourist era.1992, Steven Davis, Connectionism: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 84
    • Yes, DSL is a better, faster and less expensive way to access the Internet. Unfortunately, it's saddled with back-office systems that belong in the Dark Ages and politics that may require regulatory oversight.2000 March 6, Network World, volume 17, number 10, page 49

Proper noun (2) capitalized: dark Ages

the dark Ages

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Dark Ages.

Synonyms of dark ages

Forms of dark ages

alternative formDark Age
alternative formdark Ages
alternative formdark ages
alternative formdarke ages

Origin of dark ages

The phrase appears in writing of the English Reformation by Richard Sibbes (1620) and by George Abbot (1624), the archbishop of Canterbury. Both authors use it to refer to the period of papal supremacy before the Reformation. The earliest citation in Oxford English Dictionary is dated 1687. Use is specific to English therefore not likely to be from Latin.

Questions about dark ages

What does dark ages mean?
Dark ages means the period of European history encompassing (roughly) 476–1000 CE.
What is dark ages the alternative letter-case form of?
Dark ages is the alternative letter-case form of Dark Ages.
What part of speech is dark ages?
Dark ages is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dark ages?
Dark ages is pronounced /ˈdɑːˌkeɪd͡ʒɪz/.

Words near dark ages in the dictionary

  1. dark academia
  2. dark academic
  3. dark academics
  4. dark advertising
  5. dark age
  6. dark ages
  7. Dark Alfs
  8. dark alternative
  9. dark alternative scenes
  10. dark ambient
  11. Dark and Bloody Ground State

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dark ages (page history and authors); Dark Ages (page history and authors); dark Ages (page history and authors); dark age (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:

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