dark horse

noun

1

a

: 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.

Recent Examples on the Web

Even if all the aforementioned modern attempts fail to safely deliver their rover payloads to the moon, another dark horse contender still waits in the wings via a potential CLPS mission of its own. —Christopher Cokinos, Scientific American, 8 Apr. 2026

Given those accolades, Kuma was something of a dark horse in the competitoin. —Harrison Jacobs, ARTnews.com, 7 Apr. 2026

Then a dark horse candidate asked if he was allowed to vote for himself. —Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 2 Apr. 2026

However, both Amazon Prime and Netflix are reportedly still in the mix as dark horse contenders to have Tomlin as a studio analyst. —Andrew McCarty, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1821, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for dark horse

• concourse
• divorce
• endorse
• enforce
• indorse
• midcourse
• outsource
• perforce
• racecourse
• racehorse
• remorse
• seahorse

Kids Definition

dark horse

noun

: a contestant or a political figure whose abilities and chances of winning are not known

the convention nominated a dark horse