The quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white).

synonyms: blackness, inkiness.

Roget 432: gray etc. adj.; neutral tint, silver, pepper and salt, chiaroscuro, grisaille [Fr.].    [Pigments] Payne's gray; black etc. 431.   

Roget 431: blackness, etc. adj.; darkness, etc. (want of light).. 421; swartliness^†, lividity, dark color, tone, color; chiaroscuro etc. 420.    nigrification^†, infuscation^†.    jet, ink, ebony, coal pitch, soot, charcoal, sloe, smut, raven, crow.    [derogatory terms for black-skinned people] negro, blackamoor, man of color, nigger, darkie, Ethiop, black; buck, nigger [U.S.]; coon [U.S.], sambo.    [Pigments] lampblack, ivory black, blueblack; writing ink, printing ink, printer's ink, Indian ink, India ink.    ... show more

Polish: czarność, czerń

Total absence of light:
— In the black of night.

synonyms: blackness, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness.

Dutch: gitzwart, pikdonker, aardedonker
Polish: egipskie ciemności, czerń, kimeryjskie ciemności

British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799).

synonym: Joseph Black.

Popular child actress of the 1930's (born in 1928).

synonyms: Shirley Temple, Shirley Temple Black.

A person with African ancestry,.

synonyms: African-American, Negro, Negroid.

Dutch: zwart, moor, neger, negerin, nikker, roetmop, zwarte
Polish: czarnoskóry, czarny, Murzyn, Negr

board games The darker pieces.

Dutch: zwart

Black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning).

Make or become black:
— The smoke blackened the ceiling.
— The ceiling blackened.

synonyms: blacken, melanise, melanize.

Roget 431: be black etc. adj.; render black etc. adj.. blacken, infuscate^†, denigrate; blot, blotch; smutch^†; smirch; darken etc. 421.    black, sable, swarthy, somber, dark, inky, ebony, ebon, atramentous^†, jetty; coal-black, jet-black; fuliginous^†, pitchy, sooty, swart, dusky, dingy, murky, Ethiopic; low-toned, low in tone; of the deepest dye.    black as jet etc. n., black as my hat, black as a shoe, black as a tinker's pot, black as November, black as thunder, black as midnight; nocturnal etc. (dark) 421; nigrescent^†; gray etc. 432; obscure etc. 421.    ... show more

Dutch: zwartmaken

Being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light.

Polish: czarny

Of or belonging to a racial group especially of sub-Saharan African origin.

Polish: murzyński

Marked by anger or resentment or hostility.

Polish: gniewny, zagniewany, rozzłoszczony, rozgniewany

Offering little or no hope:
— The future looked black.

synonyms: bleak, dim.

Stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable:
— Black deeds.
— A black lie.
— His black heart has concocted yet another black deed.

synonyms: dark, sinister.

Roget 421: dark, darksome^†, darkling; obscure, tenebrious^†, sombrous^†, pitch dark, pitchy, pitch black; caliginous^†; black etc. (in color) 431.    sunless, lightless etc. (sun) (light), etc. 423; somber, dusky; unilluminated etc. (illuminate) etc. 420^†; nocturnal; dingy, lurid, gloomy; murky, murksome^†; shady, umbrageous; overcast etc. (dim) 422; cloudy etc. (opaque) 426; darkened; etc. v.. dark as pitch, dark as a pit, dark as Erebus [Lat.].    benighted; noctivagant^†, noctivagous^†.    ... show more

of events Having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin:
— The stock market crashed on Black Friday.

synonyms: calamitous, disastrous, fatal, fateful.

Polish: szkodliwy

of the face Made black especially as with suffused blood:
— A face black with fury.

synonym: blackened.

Extremely dark:
— A black moonless night.
— Through the pitch-black woods.

synonyms: pitch-black, pitch-dark.

Harshly ironic or sinister:
— Black humor.

synonyms: grim, mordant.

of intelligence operations Deliberately misleading.

Distributed or sold illicitly:
— The black economy pays no taxes.

synonyms: black-market, bootleg, contraband, smuggled.

used of conduct or character Deserving or bringing disgrace or shame:
— Man...has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands.

synonyms: disgraceful, ignominious, inglorious, opprobrious, shameful.

Roget 945: vicious; sinful; sinning etc. v.; wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal; naughty, incorrect; unduteous^†, undutiful.    unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores [Lat.], indecorous, unseemly, improper; dissolute, profligate, scampish; unworthy; worthless; desertless^†; disgraceful, recreant; reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable; discreditable, disreputable; Sadistic.    base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous^†, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous; flagrant, flagitious; atrocious, incarnate, accursed.    Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike^†, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish.    miscreated^†, misbegotten; demoralized, corrupt, depraved.    evil-minded, evil-disposed; ill-conditioned; malevolent etc. 907; heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless; abandoned, lost to virtue; unconscionable; sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity.    incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for; culpable, reprehensible etc. (guilty) 947.    unjustifiable; indefensible, inexcusable; inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible^†.    weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect; indiscrete; demoralizing, degrading.    ... show more

Polish: haniebny

of coffee Without cream or sugar.

Soiled with dirt or soot:
— With feet black from playing outdoors.
— His shirt was black within an hour.

synonym: smutty.

Polish: czarny