Word.ws English Dictionary

darkie

darkie is the alternative spelling of darkey.

Meaning of darkey

Noun

darkey (plural darkeys)

  1. (dated, ethnic, offensive, slang, slur) A person with dark skin.
    • The windmill under the care of Mr. Kinney, a kind hearted old Englishman, was to me a source of infinite interest and pleasure. The old man always seemed pleased when he saw a troop of darkey little urchins, with their tow-linen shirts fluttering in the breeze, approaching to view and admire the...1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 3, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    BIPOC, BME, colored, colored person, minority, nonwhite, person of color
  2. (obsolete, slang) A dark lantern.
  3. (Australia, New Zealand, offensive) A luderick, blackfish, parore (Girella tricuspidata).

Forms of darkie

pluraldarkies

Origin of darkie

From dark + -ie.

Words formed from darkie

Phrases with darkie

Questions about darkie

What is darkie the alternative spelling of?
Darkie is the alternative spelling of darkey.

Words near darkie in the dictionary

  1. Darkhan
  2. darkhearted
  3. darkhorse
  4. darkhorse candidate
  5. darkhorse candidates
  6. darkie
  7. darkies
  8. darking
  9. darking up
  10. Darkinjung
  11. Darkins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: darkie (page history and authors); darkey (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: “darkie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/darkie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.