How do you pronounce black?

The recorded pronunciation is /blæk/.

Where does black come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

black

/blæk/

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: 5.46 in modern English

Syllables: black
IPA: /blæk/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.

adj

Without light.

adj

Belonging to or descended from any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc.) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin. (See usage notes below.)

adj

Belonging to or descended from any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc.) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin. (See usage notes below.)

British usage; American usage

adj

Designated for use by those ethnic groups (as described above).

adj

Of the spades or clubs suits.

adj

Bad; evil; ill-omened.

adj

Expressing menace or discontent; threatening; sullen.

Example Sentences

"The items around him were black in colour."
"The scandal of a lie is in a manner lost and annihilated when diffused among several thousands; as a drop of the blackest tincture wears away and vanishes when mixed and confused in a considerable body of water; the blot is still in it, but is not able to discover itself."
"Speaking of round sunglasses, these lightweight polarized ones and come in two shades of tortoiseshell as well as black and bronze."
"Somebody tell me, what can I do / Something is holding me back / Is it because I'm black?"
"I believed that a huge injustice had been perpetrated for hundreds of years on every black man, woman, and child in the United States."
"I am a young, light-skinned black woman, and truer words were never written of the problem we light-skinned blacks have had to live with. The article explains in-depth what it's like."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *blakaz Proto-West Germanic *blak Old English blæc Middle English blak English black From Middle English blak, black, blake, from Old English blæc (“black, dark", also "ink”), from Proto-West Germanic *blak, from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burnt”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to burn, shine”). See also Dutch blaken (“to burn”), Low German blak, black (“blackness, black paint, (black) ink”), Old High German blah (“black”); also compare Latin flagrāre (“to burn”), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”), Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga, “radiance”). Adjective sense 20 is a semantic loan from Cantonese 黑面 (hak1 min6, “to pull a long face, to scowl”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: blak, blæc, *blak, *blakaz, *bʰleg-, blāc

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /blæk/
British English: /blæk/

Usage

Inflected Forms

blacker (comparative) more black (comparative) blackest (superlative) most black (superlative) blacke (alternative, obsolete) blk (alternative) blak (alternative) blacks (plural) blacks (present, singular) blacking (participle, present) blacked (participle, past) blacked (past)

Derived Forms

antiblack blaccent Blackacre blackademic blackamoor Blackanese blackassed blackback blackball blackband Blackbeard blackboard

Phrases

All Blacks American black bear American black duck American black plum American black vulture anti-black Argentine black and white tegu Arizona black walnut

Frequently Paired Words

blackamoor blackavised blackberry blackbird blacken blackness forblack black eye

Synonyms

dark swart gloomy adumbral blear caliginous cimmerian crepuscular darksome darkling dim dimpsy

Antonyms

white light bright illuminated lit whiteness achromatic clear colorless pale

Rhymes With

back attack track lack jack pack mac crack hack stack pac sack