Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

black friday

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: 4.84 in modern English

Syllables
black- fri-day
IPA
26
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars

Meaning

name

Any Friday that is literally or figuratively darkened by catastrophe, or the anniversary thereof.

name

The conclusion of United States v. Scheinberg on April 15, 2011, after which major online poker sites stopped offering real money play to their United States customers.

name

The day after Thanksgiving Day, generally regarded as the first day of the Christmas season, and the busiest shopping day of the year.

Canadian usage; British usage; American usage

name

The sales period involving heavy price reductions immediately following Thanksgiving Day, from Friday (the original Black Friday) through Monday (Cyber Monday).

American usage

name

Synonym of Friday the thirteenth (“a Friday falling on the 13th day of the month (and therefore doubly ill-omened)”).

name

Good Friday, the Friday before Easter.

Obsolete

Etymology

From black (“bad; ill-omened; marked by disaster”) + Friday. Friday has long been considered an unlucky day in ancient superstition. When a Friday coincided with another bad omen, such as falling on the 13th, or was marked by a disaster, it came to be called a Black Friday. In Philadelphia, police later used the term to describe the day after Thanksgiving, when heavy shopping crowds caused severe traffic congestion and chaos. Over time, public relations campaigns promoted a more positive, but inaccurate, explanation for the name. This widely circulated false etymology claimed that Black Friday” referred to the point in the year when retailers shifted from operating at a loss (“in the red”) to making a profit (“in the black”). Despite its popularity, this explanation is an urban legend and was even mistakenly included in sources like Wiktionary for several years.

Usage

Inflected Forms

Black Fridays (plural)

Phrases

boxing day

Frequently Paired Words

boxing day Black Monday Black Tuesday Black Thursday Cyber Monday

Synonyms

Friday the thirteenth

Questions

What does black friday mean?
Any Friday that is literally or figuratively darkened by catastrophe, or the anniversary thereof.
Where does black friday come from?
From black (“bad; ill-omened; marked by disaster”) + Friday. Friday has long been considered an unlucky day in ancient superstition. When a Friday coincided with another bad omen, such as falling on the 13th, or was marked by a disaster, it came to be called a Black Friday. In Philadelphia, police later used the term to describe the day after Thanksgiving, when heavy shopping crowds caused severe traffic congestion and chaos. Over time, public relations campaigns promoted a more positive, but inaccurate, explanation for the name. This widely circulated false etymology claimed that Black Friday” referred to the point in the year when retailers shifted from operating at a loss (“in the red”) to making a profit (“in the black”). Despite its popularity, this explanation is an urban legend and was even mistakenly included in sources like Wiktionary for several years.

How to pronounce black friday

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  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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