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

These black holes can release high-energy particles into space. —Nick Butler, FOXNews.com, 28 June 2025

Radio signals from space are not an uncommon occurrence; in fact, telescopes pick up signals all the time coming from pulsars, black holes, massive galaxies, stars and various other cosmic phenomena. —Maria Azzurra Volpe, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 June 2025

The black hole, designated PG1211+143, has a mass around 40 million times that of the sun and powers a bright quasar. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 23 June 2025

The team even encountered a few supermassive black holes, previously invisible to the Hubble telescope. —Jay Kakade june 22, New Atlas, 22 June 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