BLACKNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does blackness mean? 

• BLACKNESS (noun)
  The noun BLACKNESS has 2 senses:

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

2. total absence of light

  Familiarity information: BLACKNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLACKNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

black; blackness; inkiness

Hypernyms ("blackness" is a kind of...):

achromatic color; achromatic colour (a color lacking hue; white or grey or black)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blackness"):

coal black; ebony; jet black; pitch black; sable; soot black (a very dark black)

Derivation:

black (being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light)

black (soiled with dirt or soot)

black ((of coffee) without cream or sugar)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Total absence of light

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

black; blackness; lightlessness; pitch blackness; total darkness

Context example:

in the black of night

Hypernyms ("blackness" is a kind of...):

dark; darkness (absence of light or illumination)

Derivation:

black (extremely dark)

 Context examples 

Peering through the gloom, I saw the vague outline of a man, a shade blacker than the blackness of the open door.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And then came a sudden rush of blackness and oblivion.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As the last rays of daylight dwindled and disappeared, absolute blackness settled down on Treasure Island.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

We, however, are not selfish, and we believe that God is with us through all this blackness, and these many dark hours.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There was no suggestion of form in the utter blackness; only could be seen a pair of eyes gleaming like live coals.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

His steps were feeble and uncertain, just as the wolf's that trailed him were feeble and uncertain; and that night, when the shining sea was blotted out by blackness, he knew he was nearer to it by no more than four miles.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

My father saw this change with pleasure, and he turned his thoughts towards the best method of eradicating the remains of my melancholy, which every now and then would return by fits, and with a devouring blackness overcast the approaching sunshine.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

For a full minute the blackness and the blankness endured.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)