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

• blank
• blankness
• emptiness
• vacancy
• vacuity
• void

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

But sometimes, stars or clouds fall into these black holes, which activates them and makes the region close to the black hole emit lots of X-rays. —Giuseppina Fabbiano, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2024

The galaxy is estimated to be more than 1,600 light years across, and the light is suspected to be coming from young stars and not emission from a growing supermassive black hole. —Greg Wehner, Fox News, 31 May 2024

Possible sources of black hole growth in the early universe include the collapse of primordial clouds, remnants of early giant stars and the merging of stars and black holes, per the study. —Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 May 2024

This maximum is due to the amount of torque on the black hole generated by radiation emitted from the accretion disk and swallowed by the black hole. —Isaac Schultz / Gizmodo, Quartz, 23 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1964, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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