black hole

Definition of black hole

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 Example Sentences Learn More about black hole

Keep scrolling for more

Examples of black hole in a Sentence

a psychopath who seemingly has a black hole where his heart should be

Recent Examples on the Web This diet is feeling like a bandaid for a black hole. — Claire Fitzsimmons, Longreads, "Eating To Save My Mind," 10 Aug. 2020 To reveal a more literal gap in the sky, the Event Horizon Telescope recently captured a still image of the silhouette of the black hole in the giant galaxy M87. — Avi Loeb, Scientific American, "A Movie of the Evolving Universe, Potentially Scary," 2 Aug. 2020 Roughly 780 million years ago and a correspondingly distant 780 million light-years away, a strange stellar object was devoured by a black hole 23 times more massive than the sun. — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, "Distant Black Hole Collides With a Mysterious Object," 26 June 2020 In the case of this latest discovery, researchers first detected gravitational waves emanating from the quasar J124942.3+344929—an active supermassive black hole 100 million times more massive than our sun—in May 2019. — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, "Two Colliding Black Holes, a Flash of Light, and a New Cosmic Mystery," 25 June 2020 This massive, hungry black hole was first identified and studied by researchers in May 2018. — Ashley Strickland, CNN, "The fastest-growing black hole in the universe has a massive appetite," 2 July 2020 Not all matter that comes close to a black hole is doomed. — Scientific American, "Black Hole BLOWBACK," 1 July 2020 The cosmic merger was dubbed GW190814 and resulted in a final black hole about 25 times the mass of the sun, located about 800 million light-years from Earth. — Fox News, "'Mystery object' spotted by astronomers changes talk of black holes, neutron stars," 24 June 2020 Given the lack of a visible supernova, the researchers believe the star grew dim and was obscured from view by dust or reached the end of its life and collapsed into a black hole. — Ashley Strickland, CNN, "Investigating the disappearance of a massive star in a distant galaxy," 30 June 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'black hole.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about black hole

Dictionary Entries near black hole

Black Hills beetle

Black Hills spruce

black Hollander

black horehound

Statistics for black hole

Last Updated

13 Aug 2020

Cite this Entry

“Black hole.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/black%20hole. Accessed 22 Aug. 2020.

Keep scrolling for more

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

parochial

Listen to the pronunciation of parochial

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Test Your Vocabulary

Odd Habits and Quirks Quiz

Which of the following best describes an easily irritated person?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.