Merriam-Webster Logo
SINCE 1828
Menu
dictionary thesaurus

dark horse

noun

Definition of dark horse

1a : a usually little known contender (such as a racehorse) that makes an unexpectedly good showing
b : an entrant in a contest that is judged unlikely to succeed
2 : a political candidate unexpectedly nominated usually as a compromise between factions

Examples of dark horse in a Sentence

The Democrat from Utah has gone from being a dark horse to the front-runner in the campaign for President. The movie is a dark horse for the award. He is a dark horse, but I did find out that he once played football professionally.
See More

Recent Examples on the Web

 Daniel Rapaport: Pardon my calling a 12-time Grand Slam champion a dark horse, but that's exactly what Novak Djokovic is right now. — The Si Staff, SI.com, "Wimbledon 2018 Preview Roundtable: Predictions, Dark Horses, More," 29 June 2018 Microsoft Microsoft could be the dark horse here: CEO Satya Nadella has shown a flair for the dramatic big-money buy: think of the $7.5 billion acquisition of GitHub this summer, or the $27 billion buyout of LinkedIn in 2016. — Theodore Schleifer, Recode, "Who could buy Discord? Acquirers have been giving the gaming startup a long look.," 21 Nov. 2018 Political hustle: Stavis is this cycle’s dark horse. — Theodore Schleifer, Recode, "Ten big Silicon Valley money players behind this November’s U.S. midterm elections," 20 Aug. 2018 Prior to the tournament, an armchair pundit or two may have labelled them the 'dark horse', or a team who could 'surprise a few'. — SI.com, "Pride and Passion: Croatia's Unrelenting Fighting Spirit Continues to Carry National Hope," 12 July 2018 There were are no dark horses in this Final Four matchup. — Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY, "Final Four preview: No. 1 Villanova vs. No. 1 Kansas — keys to victory," 25 Mar. 2018 Chiang was once seen as the dark horse of the Democratic field, but his campaign has yet to ignite. — Phil Willon, latimes.com, "High-stakes California governor’s race debate gets testy as personal and political attacks fly," 9 May 2018 Here’s a dark horse for the quarterback battle: incoming freshman Kevaris Thomas. — Jake Lourim, The Courier-Journal, "How Louisville football can (and can't) beat Western Kentucky," 4 July 2018 Georgia Tech catcher Joey Bart would be the next most-likely scenario, with Wisconsin high-schooler Jarred Kelenic looking like the dark horse. 2. — Richard Morin, azcentral, "MLB mock draft 2.0: Arizona Diamondbacks select a high school shortstop," 29 May 2018

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

See More

First Known Use of dark horse

1831, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about dark horse

Share dark horse

Statistics for dark horse

Last Updated

24 Feb 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for dark horse

The first known use of dark horse was in 1831

See more words from the same year

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for dark horse

dark horse

noun

English Language Learners Definition of dark horse

: a person (such as a politician), animal, or thing that competes in a race or other contest and is not expected to win
British : a person who has interesting qualities or abilities that most people do not know about

See the full definition for dark horse in the English Language Learners Dictionary

More from Merriam-Webster on dark horse

Rhyming Dictionary: Words that rhyme with dark horse

Comments on dark horse

What made you want to look up dark horse? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

Show Comments  Hide Comments 

WORD OF THE DAY

canker

Listen to the pronounciation of canker

to corrupt or become corrupted

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Test Your Vocabulary

A Green Quiz

  • shamrock
  • What is the best definition of green-eyed monster?
Spell It

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ
Bee Cubed

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

TAKE THE QUIZ

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Words at Play

Ask the Editors

Word Games