blacklist

1 of 2

noun

black·​list ˈblak-ˌlist 

1

: a list of persons who are disapproved of or are to be punished or boycotted

2

: a list of banned or excluded things of disreputable character

a domain-name blacklist

… helped the government keep marijuana on the blacklist.

—Cynthia Cotts

blacklist

2 of 2

verb

blacklisted; blacklisting; blacklists

transitive verb

: to put on a blacklist

blacklister noun

Examples of blacklist in a Sentence

Noun

He's on the FBI's blacklist.

The rental company has created a blacklist of bad drivers.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

At the height of the blacklist, network executives had been cowardly; sponsors had folded without hesitation. —Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 9 June 2025

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is back in business in Texas after the state removed it from a blacklist of financial firms that Republican officials deemed to be prejudiced against the oil and gas industry. —Tim McDonnell, semafor.com, 5 June 2025

Verb

Performers fear being blacklisted by colleagues and losing work, while some also describe a culture in which discussing accidents could be considered a weakness. —Jake Kanter, Deadline, 27 June 2025

Back in the 1960s, legendary Brazilian modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer had been effectively blacklisted from working in the United States because of his leftist political associations. —Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 2 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1624, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1702, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for blacklist

• assist
• booklist
• checklist
• consist
• desist
• dismissed
• enlist
• exist
• insist
• oocyst
• persist
• resist

Kids Definition

blacklist

noun

black·​list

ˈblak-ˌlist

: a list of persons who are disapproved of and are to be punished

blacklist verb