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

And while your guesses have been out of this world, Ken, there are some major black holes in your constellation map. —Michael Schneider, Variety, 19 Mar. 2026

At a time when many job seekers liken the search to hurling applications into a black hole, going old-school helped Manaois get hers in front of an actual person. —Sarah Jackson, CNBC, 17 Mar. 2026

However, these initial assumptions were later upended by further observations, paving the way for several new hypotheses, many of them still involving black holes. —Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 17 Mar. 2026

These events all suggest intricate formation processes in which the black holes themselves formed through multiple earlier mergers. —K. R. Callaway, Scientific American, 17 Mar. 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