ebony
UK/ˈɛb.ən.i/
ebony noun: a hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.
Noun
ebony (usually uncountable, plural ebonies)
- A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.
- A tree that yields such wood.
- “You live up the road past the ebony tree, right?” he asked, looking past me.2018, Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, HarperVoyager, page 51
- A deep, dark black colour.
- Near-synonyms: onyx, raven
- Dark skin colour.
- At dawn the hunters were off. There were fifty sleek, black warriors, and in their midst, lithe and active as a young forest god, strode Tarzan of the Apes, his brown skin contrasting oddly with the ebony of his companions. Except for color he was one of them.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 130
- A black key on a piano or other keyboard instrument (as opposed to ivory).
- Ebony and ivory / Live together in perfect harmony / Side by side on my piano keyboard / Oh lord, why don't we?1982, Paul McCartney, “Ebony and Ivory”, in Tug of War, performed by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
- Tony had gone into the storage room and gotten two more standing lamps, one placed near the ebonies and ivories.2016, Peter Wendt, Nikki Magee, Lulu.com, page 52
Adjective
ebony (comparative more ebony, superlative most ebony)
- Made of ebony wood.
- A deep, dark black colour.
- Near-synonyms: onyx, raven
- Seats are trimmed in a grey and blue moquette and tables are finished with grey Vyanide tops, gilt edging and ebony legs.1961 February, “New "Mini-Buffets" from Wolverton”, in Trains Illustrated, page 79
- Dark-skinned; black; especially in reference to African-Americans.
- He called the ebony mistress of the establishment to him, and speaking to her kindly and winningly, as any dutiful husband should, told her to make the change, which she did.1864, George Adams Fisher, The Yankee conscript: or, Eighteen months in Dixie
- No attempt was made in her new home to discontinue or even to conceal the presence of an ebony mistress and a thriving family of little mulattoes...1931, Catherine MacFarlane Carswell, The life of Robert Burns
Proper noun capitalized: Ebony
Ebony
- A female given name from English.
- A stereotypical African-American woman.
ebony meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
ebony in Hindi
- wood
- आबनूस ābnūs
- tree
- आबनूस ābnūs
- colour
- आबनूस ābnūs
- made of ebony wood
- आबनूसी ābnūsī
ebony in Tamil
- கருங்காலி
ebony in Urdu
- wood
- آبْنُوس ābnūs
- tree
- آبْنُوس ābnūs
- colour
- آبْنُوس ābnūs
ebony in Bengali
- wood
- আবলুস abolus
More languagesFewer languages
- ebony in Malayalam
- കരിമരം karimaraṁ, കരിന്താളി karintāḷi
- ebony in Kannada
- ಬೀಟೆ
- ebony in Punjabi
- ਆਬਨੂਸ ābnūs
- ebony in Gujarati
- અબનૂસ abanūs
- ebony in Sanskrit
- आलु ālu
- ebony in Tagalog
- ebano, bantulihaw
- ebony in Arabic
- آبَنُوس ʔābanūs
- ebony in Malay
- abnus
- ebony in Indonesian
- abnus, cewek hitam
- ebony in Persian
- آبنوس âbnus
- ebony in Thai
- ตะโก dtà-goo, มะเกลือ má-glʉʉa
- ebony in Vietnamese
- gỗ mun
Synonyms of ebony
Forms of ebony
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ebonies |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more ebony |
| superlative | most ebony |
Origin of ebony
From earlier heben, hebeny, from Middle English ebenif, hebenyf (influenced by Late Latin hebeninus), from Ecclesiastical Latin ebenius (“of ebony”), from Latin hebenus (“ebon tree”), from Ancient Greek ἔβενος (ébenos), from Egyptian hbnj, U13:n-Z4:M3
From ebony. First used by African Americans in the 1970s.
Words formed from ebony
Phrases with ebony
Questions about ebony
- What does ebony mean?
- Ebony means a hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.
- What is ebony in Hindi?
- Ebony in Hindi is आबनूस (ābnūs), आबनूसी (ābnūsī). See Ebony meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ebony?
- Ebony can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ebony?
- Ebony is pronounced /ˈɛb.ən.i/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ebony?
- The plural of ebony is ebonies.
Words near ebony in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ebony (page history and authors); Ebony (page history and authors); ebony (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ebony (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਆਬਨੂਸ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); आलु (Sanskrit) (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: en-au-ebony.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ebony.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ebony. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.