darkness
Other forms: darknesses
The complete (or partial) absence of light is darkness. If you've ever lost power in your house during a nighttime storm, you know what it's like to be suddenly engulfed in darkness.
There are degrees of darkness, from the complete darkness of the woods on a moonless night to the darkness of a room lit by candlelight. Darkness is open to interpretation, since it's defined as a lack of light. There's also a figurative darkness, which can represent wickedness, sadness, ignorance, or simply mystery: "The details of their adventures would remain in darkness, unless one of them wrote a book someday."
Definitions of darkness
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absence of light or illumination
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synonyms:
dark
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types:
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night
darkness
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black, blackness, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness
total absence of light
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blackout, brownout, dimout
darkness resulting from the extinction of lights (as in a city invisible to enemy aircraft)
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semidarkness
partial darkness
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cloudiness, overcast
gloomy semidarkness caused by cloud cover
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shade, shadiness, shadowiness
relative darkness caused by light rays being intercepted by an opaque body
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dimness, duskiness
the state of being poorly illuminated
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gloom, somberness, sombreness
a state of partial or total darkness
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obscureness, obscurity
the state of being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination
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type of:
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illumination
the degree of visibility of your environment
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an unilluminated area
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an unenlightened state“his lectures dispelled the darkness”
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synonyms:
dark
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type of:
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unenlightenment
a lack of understanding
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unenlightenment
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absence of moral or spiritual values
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having a dark or somber color
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a swarthy complexion
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synonyms:
duskiness, swarthiness
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type of:
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complexion, skin color, skin colour
the coloring of a person's face
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complexion, skin color, skin colour
Pronunciation
US
/ˈdɑrknəs/
UK
/ˈdɑknɛs/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘darkness'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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