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

The system contains a black hole and a massive blue supergiant star orbiting each other. —Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 10 May 2026

Ships are vanishing into digital black holes only to materialize hours later on the other side of Hormuz with the transit completed in total silence. —Erik Bethel, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2026

Astronomers watched as jets blasting from a black hole cannibalized a blue supergiant companion star. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 21 Apr. 2026

Prabu plans to apply similar techniques to other black holes. —Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 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