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

• 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

Most TDEs take place in the center of a galaxy, where a supermassive black hole lurks. —Keith Cooper, Space.com, 16 Oct. 2025

But closer in, where the gravity of the black hole holds sway, things are very different. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2025

Astronomers once thought the odd radio circles might be the throats of wormholes, shockwaves from black hole collisions or merging galaxies, or powerful jets pumping out energetic particles. —Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2025

The galaxy is massive, with a molecular mass estimated between 40 and 230 billion Suns, and a central black hole of about 100 million solar masses. —Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 12 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1964, 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