darkness

darkness

noun

Definition of DARKNESS

1

a time or place of little or no light <the raiding party snuck up under cover of darkness>

Synonyms black, blackness, candlelight, darkness, dusk, gloaming, gloom, murk, night, semidarkness, shade, shadows, twilight, umbra

Related Words midnight; blackout, brownout, dimout; shadiness, umbrage; dullness (also dulness), somberness; cloudiness, fogginess, haziness, mistiness, murkiness; dimness, faintness, gloominess, grayness, paleness; half-light

Near Antonyms moonlight, starlight, sunlight; effulgence, radiance, radiancy, shine, sunshine; incandescence, luminance, luminescence, luminosity, luminousness

Antonyms blaze, brightness, brilliance, day, daylight, glare, glow, light, lightness

2

the quality or state of having a veiled or uncertain meaning <the darkness of certain passages in the Book of Revelation>

Synonyms ambiguity, ambiguousness, darkness, equivocalness, equivocation, inscrutability, inscrutableness, murkiness, mysteriousness, nebulosity, nebulousness, obliqueness, obliquity, opacity, opaqueness

Related Words mystery, reconditeness; cloudiness, dimness, faintness, fogginess, fuzziness, haziness, indefiniteness, indistinctness, mistiness, shade, shadow, uncertainty, vagueness; impenetrability, incomprehensibility, incomprehensibleness; circuitousness, circuity, indirectness; deepness, depth, profoundness; abstruseness, abstrusity, complexity, complication, difficulty, obtuseness

Near Antonyms comprehensibility, intelligibility, legibility; brightness, distinctness, self-evidence; certainty, surety; definiteness, exactness, explicitness, incision, incisiveness, lucidity, lucidness, perspicuity, perspicuousness; directness, forthrightness, openness, straightforwardness; palpability, tangibility, tangibleness, visibility; readability, readableness; obviousness

Antonyms clarity, clearness, obviousness, plainness

3

the time from sunset to sunrise when there is no visible sunlight <let's wait for darkness before telling ghost stories>

Synonyms dark, darkness, nighttime

Related Words dusk, evening, gloaming, nightfall, twilight; midnight

Near Antonyms dawn, daybreak, sunrise, sunup; forenoon, morning; high noon, midday, noon, noonday, noontide, noontime; afternoon

Antonyms day, daytime

4

an overspreading element that produces an atmosphere of gloom <the darkness of that period of my life is best forgotten>

Synonyms darkness, pall, shadow

Related Words fog, haze, mist, murk, penumbra, umbra; midnight, night; mantle, shroud, veil