| English Dictionary |
DARK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does dark mean?
• DARK (noun)
The noun DARK has 5 senses:
1. absence of light or illumination
2. absence of moral or spiritual values
3. an unilluminated area
4. the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
5. an unenlightened state
Familiarity information: DARK used as a noun is common.
• DARK (adjective)
The adjective DARK has 10 senses:
1. devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black
2. (used of color) having a dark hue
3. brunet (used of hair or skin or eyes)
4. stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable
5. secret
6. showing a brooding ill humor
7. lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture
8. marked by difficulty of style or expression
9. causing dejection
10. not giving performances; closed
Familiarity information: DARK used as an adjective is familiar.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Absence of light or illumination
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
dark; darkness
Hypernyms ("dark" is a kind of...):
illumination (the degree of visibility of your environment)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dark"):
night (darkness)
black; blackness; lightlessness; pitch blackness; total darkness (total absence of light)
blackout; brownout; dimout (darkness resulting from the extinction of lights (as in a city invisible to enemy aircraft))
semidarkness (partial darkness)
Antonym:
light (having abundant light or illumination)
Derivation:
dark (devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Absence of moral or spiritual values
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
dark; darkness; wickedness
Context example:
the powers of darkness
Hypernyms ("dark" is a kind of...):
condition; status (a state at a particular time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dark"):
foulness (disgusting wickedness and immorality)
Derivation:
dark (stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An unilluminated area
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Synonyms:
Context example:
he moved off into the darkness
Hypernyms ("dark" is a kind of...):
scene (the place where some action occurs)
Derivation:
dark (devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Synonyms:
Hypernyms ("dark" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Meronyms (parts of "dark"):
midnight (12 o'clock at night; the middle of the night)
lights-out (a prescribed bedtime)
small hours (the hours just after midnight)
late-night hour (the latter part of night)
evening (the early part of night (from dinner until bedtime) spent in a special way)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dark"):
weeknight (any night of the week except Saturday or Sunday)
wedding night (the night after the wedding when bride and groom sleep together)
Holonyms ("dark" is a part of...):
24-hour interval; day; mean solar day; solar day; twenty-four hour period; twenty-four hours (time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis)
Sense 5
Meaning:
An unenlightened state
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Synonyms:
dark; darkness
Context example:
his lectures dispelled the darkness
Hypernyms ("dark" is a kind of...):
unenlightenment (a lack of understanding)
Derivation:
dark (lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture)
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: darkest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black
Context example:
dark as the inside of a black cat
Similar:
black; pitch-black; pitch-dark (extremely dark)
tenebrific; tenebrious; tenebrous (dark and gloomy)
semidark (partially devoid of light or brightness)
lightless; unilluminated; unlighted; unlit (without illumination)
gloomful; glooming; gloomy; sulky (depressingly dark)
dusky; twilight; twilit (lighted by or as if by twilight)
dim; subdued (lacking in light; not bright or harsh)
darkling (uncannily or threateningly dark or obscure)
darkling ((poetic) occurring in the dark or night)
darkened (become or made dark by lack of light)
crepuscular (like twilight; dim)
Cimmerian (intensely dark and gloomy as with perpetual darkness)
caliginous (dark and misty and gloomy)
aphotic (lacking light; especially not reached by sunlight)
Acheronian; Acherontic; Stygian (dark and dismal as of the rivers Acheron and Styx in Hades)
darkening (becoming dark or darker as from waning light or clouding over)
Attribute:
light; lightness (the visual effect of illumination on objects or scenes as created in pictures)
Antonym:
light (characterized by or emitting light)
Derivation:
dark (absence of light or illumination)
darkness; dark (an unilluminated area)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(used of color) having a dark hue
Context example:
dark colors like wine red or navy blue
Similar:
darkish (slightly dark)
Also:
black (being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light)
Attribute:
value (relative darkness or lightness of a color)
Antonym:
light ((used of color) having a relatively small amount of coloring agent)
Derivation:
darkness (having a dark or somber color)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Brunet (used of hair or skin or eyes)
Context example:
dark eyes
Similar:
brunet; brunette (marked by dark or relatively dark pigmentation of hair or skin or eyes)
Derivation:
darkness (having a dark or somber color)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable
Synonyms:
Context example:
the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him
Similar:
evil (morally bad or wrong)
Derivation:
dark; darkness (absence of moral or spiritual values)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Secret
Context example:
keep it dark
Similar:
concealed (hidden on any grounds for any motive)
Derivation:
darkness (an unenlightened state)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Showing a brooding ill humor
Synonyms:
dark; dour; glowering; glum; moody; morose; saturnine; sour; sullen
Context example:
a sullen crowd
Similar:
ill-natured (having an irritable and unpleasant disposition)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture
Synonyms:
benighted; dark
Context example:
a dark age in the history of education
Similar:
unenlightened (not enlightened; ignorant)
Derivation:
dark; darkness (an unenlightened state)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Marked by difficulty of style or expression
Synonyms:
dark; obscure
Context example:
those who do not appreciate Kafka's work say his style is obscure
Similar:
incomprehensible; uncomprehensible (difficult to understand)
Derivation:
darkness (an unenlightened state)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Causing dejection
Synonyms:
blue; dark; dingy; disconsolate; dismal; drab; drear; dreary; gloomy; grim; sorry
Context example:
grim rainy weather
Similar:
cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)
Sense 10
Meaning:
Not giving performances; closed
Context example:
the theater is dark on Mondays
Similar:
inactive (lacking activity; lying idle or unused)
Context examples
You may have found the spaces too small, too dark, or situated too far from work.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
The side of the Mariposa rushed past him like a dark wall, broken here and there by lighted ports.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
“The windows are all dark,” remarked the inspector.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The dark face of the Moon has a faint shine, a ghostly version of a full Moon.
(Earthshine, NASA)
“We have good science on chocolate, especially about dark chocolate on blood pressure,” says Dr. Luc Djoussé of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
(Can Chocolate Really Be Good for You?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
He waited till it was darker and people had begun to light up their houses, and then seeing a little glimmer ahead of him, he went towards it.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and a new observing technique, astronomers have found that dark matter forms much smaller clumps than previously known.
(Cosmic Magnifying Glasses Find Dark Matter in Small Clumps, NASA)
The night, however, was extremely dark and stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it was quite impossible to effect a rescue.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then Negore saw the Russian's face go dark, and he saw the men step to either side of him, snapping the lashes of their whips.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." (Maimonides)
"Three people can make up a tiger." (Chinese proverb)
"The one you love you punish." (Danish proverb)