un blacked


adjective, blacker, blackest.
(sometimes initial capital letter)
gloomy; pessimistic; dismal: a black outlook.
deliberately; harmful; inexcusable: a black lie.
(of coffee or tea) without milk or cream.
wearing black or dark clothing or armor: the black prince.
illegal or underground: The black economy pays no taxes.
deliberately false or intentionally misleading: black propaganda.
(sometimes initial capital letter)
Often Offensive. African American.
black pigment: lamp black.
Slang. black beauty.
a horse or other animal that is entirely black.
verb (used with object)
to make black; put black on; blacken.
British. to boycott or ban.
verb (used without object)
to become black; take on a black color; blacken.
(of coffee or tea) served without milk or cream.
Verb phrases
black out,
Theater. to extinguish all of the stage lights.
black and white,
a monochromatic picture done with black and white only.
a chocolate soda containing vanilla ice cream.
Slang. a highly recognizable police car, used to patrol a community.


blackish, adjective
blackishly, adverb
blackishness, noun
nonblack, adjective, noun
unblacked, adjective
well-blacked, adjective



3, 21. Black, colored, and Negro—words that describe or name the dark-skinned peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants—have had a complex social history in the United States. A term that was once acceptable may now be offensive, and one that was once offensive may now be acceptable. Colored, for example, first used in colonial North America, was an appropriate referential term until the 1920s, when it was supplanted by Negro. Now colored is perceived not only as old-fashioned but offensive. It survives primarily in the name of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization formed when the word was not considered derogatory. Describing someone as “a person of color,” however, is not offensive. That term, an inclusive one that can refer to anyone who is not white, is frequently used by members of the African American community.
Negro remained the overwhelming term of choice until the mid-1960s. That decade saw a burgeoning civil-rights movement, which furthered a sense that Negro was contaminated by its long association with discrimination as well as its closeness to the disparaging and deeply offensive n-word. The emergence of the black power movement fostered the emergence of black as a primary descriptive term, as in “black pride.” By the mid-1970s black had become common within and outside the black community. But Negro has not entirely disappeared. It remains in the names of such organizations as the United Negro College Fund, people still refer to Negro spirituals, and some older people of color continue to identify with the term they have known since childhood. Negro then, while not offensive in established or historical contexts, is now looked upon in contemporary speech and writing as not only antiquated but highly likely to offend.
Black remains perhaps the single most widely used term today. It has outlived the briefly popular Afro-American and, when used as an adjective, is unlikely to cause negative reactions. As a noun, however, when referring to African Americans, it does often offend—perhaps because references to “the blacks” or “a black” lead easily to misguided generalizations. But note the newer term. The 1990s saw black leaders like Jesse Jackson promote African American, which he said had “cultural integrity,” in that it refers to ethnic origins rather than to skin color. While African American has not replaced black in common parlance, it works both as a noun and as an adjective.
This shifting from term to term has not been smooth or linear, and periods of change like the late 1960s were often marked by confusion as to which term was appropriate. The 1967 groundbreaking film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, about a young interracial couple hoping that both sets of parents will accept their plans to marry, reflects the abundance of terminological choices available at the time. Various characters talk of a “colored girl,” a “colored man,” a “Negro,” and “black people.” Even the n-word appears once, used disparagingly by one black character to another. African American had not yet made it into the mix.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
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World English Dictionary
black (blæk)
2.  without light; completely dark
4.  very dirty or soiled: black factory chimneys
5.  angry or resentful: she gave him black looks
7.  (of coffee or tea) without milk or cream
9.  a.  wicked or harmful: a black lie
 b.  (in combination): black-hearted
10.  causing or deserving dishonour or censure: a black crime
11.  (of the face) purple, as from suffocation
13.  a black colour
14.  a dye or pigment of or producing this colour
15.  black clothing, worn esp as a sign of mourning
16.  chess, draughts
 a.  a black or dark-coloured piece or square
 b.  (usually capital) the player playing with such pieces
17.  complete darkness: the black of the night
18.  a black ball in snooker, etc
20.  in the black in credit or without debt
22.  another word for blacken

Black1 (blæk)

Black2 (blæk)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Word Origin & History

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

Black (blāk), Sir James Whyte. Born 1924.


The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
Black   (blāk)  Pronunciation Key 
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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Slang Dictionary

black definition

  1. mod.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw-Hill Education.
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Bible Dictionary

Black definition


Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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