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1. Being of the achromatic colour of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
   "black leather jackets"; "as black as coal"; "rich black soil"
    
2. Of or belonging to a racial group having dark skin especially of sub-Saharan African origin
   "a great people--a black people--...injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization"
    
3. Marked by anger or resentment or hostility
   "black looks"; "black words"
    
4. Offering little or no hope
   "the future looked black"
   - bleak, dim
    
5. Stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonourable
   "black deeds"; "a black lie"; "his black heart has concocted yet another black deed"
   - dark, sinister
    
6. (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin
   "the stock market crashed on Black Friday"
   - calamitous, disastrous, fatal, fateful
    
7. (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood
   "a face black with fury"
   - blackened
    
8. Extremely dark
   "a black moonless night"; "through the pitch-black woods"
   - pitch-black, pitch-dark
    
9. Harshly ironic or sinister
   "black humour"
   - grim, mordant
    
10. (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading
    "black propaganda"
     
11. Distributed or sold illicitly
    "the black economy pays no taxes"
    - bootleg, black-market, contraband, smuggled
     
12. (used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing disgrace or shame
    "Man...has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands"
    - disgraceful, ignominious, inglorious, opprobrious, shameful
     
13. (of coffee) without cream or sugar
     
14. Soiled with dirt or soot
    "with feet black from playing outdoors"; "his shirt was black within an hour"
    - smutty

1. The quality or state of the achromatic colour of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white)
   - blackness, inkiness
    
2. Total absence of light
   "in the black of night"
   - total darkness, lightlessness, blackness, pitch blackness
    
3. (board games) the darker pieces
    
4. Black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning)
   "the widow wore black"

1. Make or become black
   - blacken, melanize, melanise [Brit], nigrify

1. A person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa)
   - Black person, Negro, Negroid
    
2. Popular child actress of the 1930's (born in 1928)
   - Shirley Temple Black, Shirley Temple
    
3. British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799)
   - Joseph Black

Derived forms: blacking, blacked, Blacks, blackest, blacker, blacks

See also: African-American, Afro-American, angry, colored [US], colorful [US], coloured [Brit, Cdn], colourful [Brit, Cdn], covert, dark, dark-skinned, dirty, dishonorable [US], dishonourable [Brit, Cdn], evil, hopeless, illegal, negro, negroid, non-white, sarcastic, soiled, unclean, undiluted, unfortunate, value

Type of: achromatic color [US], achromatic colour [Brit, Cdn], actress, article of clothing, chemist, clothing, color [US], colour [Brit, Cdn], dark, darkness, discolor [US], discolour [Brit, Cdn], habiliment [archaic], individual, man, mortal, person, person of color [US], person of colour [Brit, Cdn], piece, somebody, someone, soul, vesture, wear, wearable

Antonym: white

Part of: Black race, Negro race, Negroid race

Encyclopedia: Black, Conrad Black, Brown and Beige Black, Hawthorn & Company Black, Hawthorn & Co Black, Brown, and Beige Black, AL Black Black, Alabama Black, Al Black, Missouri Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly Black, Sir James Black, Red, Yellow Black, MO Black, Hugo Black, Henry Black, James Black, Jack