dark ages
/ˈdɑːˌkeɪd͡ʒɪz/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.41 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The period of European history encompassing (roughly) 476–1000 CE.
name
noun
Alternative letter-case form of Dark Ages.
Example Sentences
- "There is one very real sense in which the Dark Ages were the brightest of times, and it is this: that they were times of defined and definite duties and freedoms."
- "It is clear that many linguists view connectionism as a revival of the radical empiricist approach that dominated the dark ages in psychology—the behaviourist era."
- "Yes, DSL is a better, faster and less expensive way to access the Internet. Unfortunately, it's saddled with back-office systems that belong in the Dark Ages and politics that may require regulatory oversight."
- "Put yourself back in the dark ages, the time before the Internet took off–say, the 1970s–and ask: What was the environment for creativity then?"
- "The Scourge disaster sent angaran civilization into a dark age. Records of their golden era of technological advancement and proliferation through space only survived as oral history, making it difficult to separate truth from legend. Nevertheless, angara believe they had colonized numerous planets across the cluster before the Scourge's devastation left them cut off from each other for centuries."
- "Sunshine on the street at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Making that sign / Must've taken all night"
Etymology
The phrase appears in writing of the English Reformation by Richard Sibbes (1620) and by George Abbot (1624), the archbishop of Canterbury. Both authors use it to refer to the period of papal supremacy before the Reformation. The earliest citation in Oxford English Dictionary is dated 1687. Use is specific to English therefore not likely to be from Latin.
Inflected Forms
the Dark Ages (canonical)
Dark Age (alternative)
darke ages (alternative)
the dark ages (canonical, plural)