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

They are no longer considered stellar mass black holes. —Bill Smith, JSTOR Daily, 4 Sep. 2025

The fear lingers because black holes are spooky and the machine is enormous, but the science and the decade-plus of safe running don’t support doomsday. —Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 4 Sep. 2025

In the vast tapestry of the universe, few phenomena are as mysterious and awe-inspiring as black holes. —Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 2 Sep. 2025

And second, the black holes formed by direct collapse should also come in lower-mass varieties, of a few thousands or a few hundreds of solar masses at that time, which should lead to a population of smaller black holes found alongside the largest ones. —Ethan Siegel, Big Think, 2 Sep. 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