Word.ws English Dictionary

darkling

/ˈdɑː(ɹ)klɪŋ/

darkling adverb: in the dark; in obscurity. Also the present participle and gerund of darkle.

Adverb

darkling (not comparable)

  1. In the dark; in obscurity.
    • So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • As the wakeful bird sings darkling.1667, John Milton, “Book III”, 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...

Adjective

darkling (not comparable)

  1. (poetic) Dark; growing dark; darkening.
    • She still pursued its flight, with all the speed / Her fainting strength had hitherto supplied: / What pathless wilds she crossed ! What forests darkling wide !1805, Mary Tighe, Canto III, in Psyche, or the legend of love, Stanza 13, line 9
    • May thine autumn calm, serene, / Never want some lingering flower, / Which Affection's hand may glean, / Though the darkling mists may lower !1812, Mary Tighe, Written for her niece S.K., in B. George Ulizio, editor, Psyche: with other poems, Stanza 4
  2. (figuratively) Obscure; taking place unseen, as if in the dark.

Noun (1)

darkling (uncountable)

  1. (rare) Darkness.
    • She carried some rugs for me through the shrubbery in the darkling. "They'll think we've gone mooning," she said, jerking her head at the household. "I wonder what they make of us – criminals."1909, H.G. Wells, Chapter the First: The Stick of the Rocket, in Tono-Bungay, Book the Fourth: The Aftermath of Tono-Bungay

Noun (2)

darkling (plural darklings)

  1. (obsolete) A child of darkness; someone dark by nature or who has grown dark in character.
  2. A creature that lives in the dark.
  3. (poetic) A demon.

Also used as

darkling is also the present participle and gerund of darkle.

Forms of darkling

pluraldarklings

Origin of darkling

From Middle English derkelyng. By surface analysis, dark + -ling.

Coined by Irish poet Mary Tighe in 1805, likely as an extension of the adverbial sense, and popularized by John Keats.

From darkle + -ing, darkle itself a backformation from Tighe's adjectival sense.

Phrases with darkling

Questions about darkling

What does darkling mean?
Darkling means in the dark; in obscurity.
What part of speech is darkling?
Darkling can be an adverb, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce darkling?
Darkling is pronounced /ˈdɑː(ɹ)klɪŋ/.

Words near darkling in the dictionary

  1. darkled
  2. darkles
  3. darklier
  4. darkliest
  5. Darklina
  6. darkling
  7. darkling beetle
  8. darkling beetles
  9. darklings
  10. darkly
  11. darkmans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: darkling (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-darkling.wav.

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