fade to black
fade to black verb: to end a film or a scene of a film by causing the image to be gradually dimmed into black.
Verb
fade to black (third-person singular simple present fades to black, present participle fading to black, simple past and past participle faded to black)
- To end a film or a scene of a film by causing the image to be gradually dimmed into black.
- They danced the famous Merengue / Now we dolly back / Now we fade to black1976, Walter Becker, Donald Fagen, “Haitian Divorce”, in The Royal Scam, performed by Steely Dan
- We don't have to fade to black / Let the sun come in2023, “Let the Sun Come In”, in Relentless, performed by The Pretenders
Noun
fade to black (plural fades to black)
- An ending of this kind.
Forms of fade to black
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | fades to black |
| present participle | fading to black |
| past participle | faded to black |
| past | faded to black |
| Noun | |
| plural | fades to black |
Origin of fade to black
From the movie industry, where it was customary to end a scene or session of filming by closing off light to the camera, sometimes for dramatic effect, but often as a practical measure.
Questions about fade to black
- What does fade to black mean?
- Fade to black means to end a film or a scene of a film by causing the image to be gradually dimmed into black.
- What part of speech is fade to black?
- Fade to black can be a verb or a noun.
- What is the past tense of fade to black?
- The past tense of fade to black is faded to black.
Words near fade to black in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fade to black (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: “fade to black.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fade_to_black. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.