DARK HORSES Synonyms: 50 Similar and Opposite Words

dark horses

noun

plural of dark horse

as in stalking horses

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

as in long shots

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

sure things

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dark horses

Noun

But newspaper people ought to stand in solidarity with our broadcast brethren/competitors in this incredibly small-minded and grudging clash between the White House and the Washington press corps.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 23 Sep. 2026
The King of the Mountain match was one of the unique bouts in the company as competitors fight to hang a title belt on a hook suspended above the cage.

— Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of competitors

Noun

Guard and Grace has hyped up Charlotte foodies this year with an early preview event and a steady lineup of collabs with restaurant favorites Chapter 6, Uchi, O-Ku, The Goodyear House and Customshop.

— Heidi Finley, Charlotte Observer, 25 Sep. 2026
Across a high-energy midday set that spanned their chart-topping singles and fan favorites, the six moved across the stage with the confidence of a group accustomed to one another’s rhythms, while fans in the crowd danced along in the stands.

— Crystal Bell, Rolling Stone, 25 Sep. 2026

Definition of favorites

Noun

That’s five major entrants choosing banking infrastructure as their on-ramp into regulated onchain finance, alongside Coinbase choosing exchange infrastructure as its own.

— Ivan Kan, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026
Cold water and hot rooms alone may not be enough to differentiate new entrants.

— Ashley Lynch, Kansas City Star, 21 Sep. 2026

Definition of entrants

Noun

Experiment with possible emphases of this puzzle’s revealer, at 55A, to make sense of the grid’s three themed entries.

— New York Times, New York Times, 23 Sep. 2026
The same July 20 entries show sales of between $1 million and $5 million of Oracle, along with purchases that included between $500,001 and $1 million of Nvidia.

— Luke Fountain, CNBC, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of entries

Noun

French President Emanuel Macron delivered a briefing to the candidates running to succeed him so disturbing that even the far-right National Rally’s leaders emerged denouncing Russian hybrid attacks.

— Ben Smith, semafor.com, 21 Sep. 2026
Descano, a former prosecutor for the Obama administration, took office in Fairfax in 2020 as part of a movement of leftist prosecutor candidates backed by megadonor George Soros.

— Hudson Crozier, The Washington Examiner, 21 Sep. 2026

Definition of candidates

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

dark horse

dark horses

darkish

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Dark horses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dark%20horses. Accessed 29 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of dark horses

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

argot

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

Popular

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

Games & Quizzes