black hole

noun

1

: a celestial object that has a gravitational field so strong that light cannot escape it and that is believed to be created especially in the collapse of a very massive star

2

: something resembling a black hole: such as

a

: something that consumes a resource continually

a financial black hole

b

: an empty space : void

… the archives of the past few years are a black hole.

—David Herman

c

: a dark and seemingly inescapable state or situation

the black hole of depression

Synonyms of black hole

• emptiness
• vacancy
• void
• blank

Examples of black hole in a Sentence

discovered that there was a black hole in the library's collection with regard to her topic

Recent Examples on the Web

Esteban is a black hole that sucks out all the air from the space around anyone in his midst; Bardem’s perpetually alpha aura makes for a great match to the material. —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 17 May 2026

Around a spinning black hole, rotational energy would be transferred to light scalar dark matter, amplifying its density, almost like a paddle churning cream into butter. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 15 May 2026

Several other similar observatories have come online since then to glimpse hundreds of additional events, but all this activity represents a narrow range of gravitational waves—those created when neutron stars or relatively small black holes collide. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 15 May 2026

Advertisement Even with the evidence and implications, what remains is that black hole. —Jake King-Schreifels, Time, 15 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1963, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for black hole

• bankroll
• bedroll
• borehole
• cajole
• catchpole
• charcoal
• condole
• control
• dipole
• downhole
• enroll
• extol

Kids Definition

black hole

noun

: an invisible region believed to exist in space having a very strong gravitational field and thought to be caused by the collapse of a star