EBONY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ebony mean? 

• EBONY (noun)
  The noun EBONY has 3 senses:

1. a very dark black

2. hard dark-colored heartwood of the ebony tree; used in cabinetwork and for piano keys

3. tropical tree of southern Asia having hard dark-colored heartwood used in cabinetwork

  Familiarity information: EBONY used as a noun is uncommon.

• EBONY (adjective)
  The adjective EBONY has 1 sense:

1. of a very dark black

  Familiarity information: EBONY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EBONY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A very dark black

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

coal black; ebony; jet black; pitch black; sable; soot black

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

black; blackness; inkiness (the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white))

Derivation:

ebonize (stain black to make it look like ebony)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hard dark-colored heartwood of the ebony tree; used in cabinetwork and for piano keys

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("ebony" is a substance of...):

Diospyros ebenum; ebony; ebony tree (tropical tree of southern Asia having hard dark-colored heartwood used in cabinetwork)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Tropical tree of southern Asia having hard dark-colored heartwood used in cabinetwork

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Diospyros ebenum; ebony; ebony tree

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

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Meronyms (substance of "ebony"):

ebony (hard dark-colored heartwood of the ebony tree; used in cabinetwork and for piano keys)

Holonyms ("ebony" is a member of...):

Diospyros; genus Diospyros (a genus of trees or shrubs that have beautiful and valuable wood)

• EBONY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of a very dark black

Synonyms:

ebon; ebony

Similar:

achromatic; neutral (having no hue)

 Context examples 

Behind him, only a few yards in his rear, bounded the huge ebony figure of Zambo, our devoted negro.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In repassing through the small vaulted room, however, your eyes will be attracted towards a large, old-fashioned cabinet of ebony and gold, which, though narrowly examining the furniture before, you had passed unnoticed.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The frame of the window was made of fine black ebony, and as she sat looking out upon the snow, she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell upon it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I should choose this if I might, replied Amy, looking with great admiration at a string of gold and ebony beads from which hung a heavy cross of the same.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A cigarette made by rolling tobacco by hand in a dried leaf from the tendu tree (a member of the ebony family).

(Bidi, NCI Dictionary)

All this Alleyne examined with curious eyes; but most interesting of all to him was a small ebony table at his very side, on which, by the side of a chess-board and the scattered chessmen, there lay an open manuscript written in a right clerkly hand, and set forth with brave flourishes and devices along the margins.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was something ascetic in her look, which was augmented by the extreme plainness of a straight-skirted, black, stuff dress, a starched linen collar, hair combed away from the temples, and the nun-like ornament of a string of ebony beads and a crucifix.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And so the little girl really did grow up; her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as the blood, and her hair as black as ebony; and she was called Snowdrop.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Everything about her mutely suggested love and sorrow, the blotted letters in her lap, the black ribbon that tied up her hair, the womanly pain and patience in her face, even the little ebony cross at her throat seemed pathetic to Laurie, for he had given it to her, and she wore it as her only ornament.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Henry's words, his description of the ebony cabinet which was to escape her observation at first, immediately rushed across her; and though there could be nothing really in it, there was something whimsical, it was certainly a very remarkable coincidence!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)