Word.ws English Dictionary

film noir

film noir noun: a film genre characterized by low-key lighting, a bleak urban setting, and corrupt, cynical or desperate characters.

Noun

film noir (countable and uncountable, plural film noirs or films noirs)

  1. (uncountable) A film genre characterized by low-key lighting, a bleak urban setting, and corrupt, cynical or desperate characters.
    • During this period his own films were being studied alongside classic film noir together with European arthouse cinema and the works of directors from around the world.2017, Ian Brookes, Film Noir: A Critical Introduction, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN
  2. (countable) An individual film in this genre.

Forms of film noir

pluralfilm noirs
pluralfilms noirs

Origin of film noir

Borrowed from French film noir (“dark film”, literally “black film”), attributed to French film critic Nino Frank (1946).

Words formed from film noir

Questions about film noir

What does film noir mean?
Film noir means a film genre characterized by low-key lighting, a bleak urban setting, and corrupt, cynical or desperate characters.
What part of speech is film noir?
Film noir is a noun.
What is the plural of film noir?
The plural of film noir is film noirs.

Words near film noir in the dictionary

  1. film library
  2. film maker
  3. film makers
  4. film making
  5. Film Nagar
  6. film noir
  7. film noirs
  8. film out
  9. film projector
  10. film projectors
  11. film punctuation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: film noir (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: “film noir.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/film_noir. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.