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DARKNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A swarthy complexion
Synonyms:
darkness; duskiness; swarthiness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("darkness" is a kind of...):
complexion; skin color; skin colour (the coloring of a person's face)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having a dark or somber color
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("darkness" is a kind of...):
value (relative darkness or lightness of a color)
Antonym:
lightness (having a light color)
Derivation:
dark (brunet (used of hair or skin or eyes))
dark ((used of color) having a dark hue)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An unenlightened state
Example:
his lectures dispelled the darkness
Synonyms:
dark; darkness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("darkness" is a kind of...):
unenlightenment (a lack of understanding)
Derivation:
dark (marked by difficulty of style or expression)
dark (lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture)
dark (secret)
Sense 4
Meaning:
An unilluminated area
Example:
he moved off into the darkness
Synonyms:
dark; darkness; shadow
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Hypernyms ("darkness" 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 5
Meaning:
Absence of light or illumination
Synonyms:
dark; darkness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("darkness" is a kind of...):
illumination (the degree of visibility of your environment)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "darkness"):
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)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Absence of moral or spiritual values
Example:
the powers of darkness
Synonyms:
dark; darkness; wickedness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("darkness" is a kind of...):
condition; status (a state at a particular time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "darkness"):
foulness (disgusting wickedness and immorality)
Derivation:
dark (stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable)
Context examples:
But there was now a great darkness besides; and that invested the storm with new terrors, real and fanciful.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
A drug used under the name Latisse to increase the length, thickness, and darkness of eyelashes.
(Bimatoprost, NCI Dictionary)
The maturity of the stars seen in MACS1149-JD1 raises the question of when the very first galaxies emerged from total darkness, an epoch astronomers romantically term “cosmic dawn”.
(ALMA and VLT Find Evidence for Stars Forming Just 250 Million Years After Big Bang, ESO)
One side of the planet always faces the star; the other side is in permanent darkness. (Similarly, our moon is tidally locked to Earth; only one hemisphere is permanently visible from Earth.)
(Hubble Observes Exoplanet that Snows Sunscreen, NASA)
For most of the giant expanse of Saturn's rings, the models correctly predicted how the rings cooled as they fell into darkness.
(At Saturn, One of These Rings is not like the Others, NASA)
Observing seasonal changes on Titan will continue to be a major goal for the Cassini mission as summer comes to Titan's north and the southern latitudes fall into winter darkness.
(Cassini tracks clouds developing over a Titan sea, NASA)
At other times I seriously contemplated suicide, and the whole force of my hopeful philosophy was required to keep me from going over the side in the darkness of night.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
And as even the memories dimmed and died in the darkness that fell upon him, he knew in her arms the fulfilment of all the ease and rest she had promised him.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
What savage creature was it which might steal upon us out of the darkness?
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This strange phenomenon happens because the 'iron rain' planet only ever shows one face, its day side, to its parent star, its cooler night side remaining in perpetual darkness.
(ESO Telescope Observes Exoplanet Where It Rains Iron, ESO)
