1
as in darkened
being without light or without much light
with its only light burned out, the closet was pitch-dark
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Recent Examples of pitch-dark
The 21st century has yielded no shortage of stylish horror marbled with devious veins of pitch-dark humor — Peter Strickland’s In Fabric, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies, Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, pretty much every Jordan Peele feature.
—
David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 22 May 2026
The play opens in a pitch-dark, three-star-hotel room, a step down for a bereaved family that has lost its patriarch and, as important, its promised inheritance.
—Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 16 Apr. 2026
On school days, that meant waking up in pitch-dark and walking to the bus stop with a flashlight.
—Literary Hub, 25 Feb. 2026
In the pitch-dark room, Heath remembers hearing the call to prayer in the morning.
—Paul Tenorio, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2026
Despite hundreds of Americans being fired or suspended by employers as a result, the pitch-dark humor that permeates our social media ecosystem was not to be suppressed.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 21 Dec. 2025
One of the officers, a special-forces commando who discussed the operation on condition of anonymity, recalls lying in the pitch-dark belly of a river barge alongside dozens of his comrades, all of them armed to the hilt, eyeing one another through night-vision goggles.
—Simon Shuster, Time, 23 Oct. 2025
Berger based his claim on the fossils being found in narrow, pitch-dark chambers, far from natural entrances or evidence of animal activity.
—Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 12 Sep. 2025
On a Saturday morning in July, my mom’s silhouette appears in the doorway of my pitch-dark childhood bedroom.
—Caitlin Gunther, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Sep. 2022
David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 22 May 2026
The play opens in a pitch-dark, three-star-hotel room, a step down for a bereaved family that has lost its patriarch and, as important, its promised inheritance.
—Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 16 Apr. 2026
On school days, that meant waking up in pitch-dark and walking to the bus stop with a flashlight.
—Literary Hub, 25 Feb. 2026
In the pitch-dark room, Heath remembers hearing the call to prayer in the morning.
—Paul Tenorio, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2026
Despite hundreds of Americans being fired or suspended by employers as a result, the pitch-dark humor that permeates our social media ecosystem was not to be suppressed.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 21 Dec. 2025
One of the officers, a special-forces commando who discussed the operation on condition of anonymity, recalls lying in the pitch-dark belly of a river barge alongside dozens of his comrades, all of them armed to the hilt, eyeing one another through night-vision goggles.
—Simon Shuster, Time, 23 Oct. 2025
Berger based his claim on the fossils being found in narrow, pitch-dark chambers, far from natural entrances or evidence of animal activity.
—Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 12 Sep. 2025
On a Saturday morning in July, my mom’s silhouette appears in the doorway of my pitch-dark childhood bedroom.
—Caitlin Gunther, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Sep. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pitch-dark
Adjective
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She’s talked up her push to convert darkened streetlights, many of them stripped of their copper wire, to solar power.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
1 June 2026
-
In the darkened foyer, Ember contemplated this unassuming bit of paper, momentarily paralyzed by a mixture of dread and excitement stirred together, an overpowering sensation that oozed from the crown of her head, down the length of her body, then hardened, like a soft golden resin becoming solid.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
1 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
As the Rams took the field for their last week of OTAs on Monday, the newest member of the organization walked out with his helmet in his left hand, pointing at new teammates with his right, his trademark white and black sweatband around his forehead.—
Adam Grosbard,
Oc Register,
9 June 2026
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Perry wore a floor-length white gown as Trudeau kept his look simple in a white dress shirt and black blazer over matching slacks.—
KiMi Robinson,
USA Today,
9 June 2026
Adjective
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Its dark terrain is constantly changing due to lava flows from Kilauea or Mauna Loa – two of the most active volcanoes in the world, according to the National Park Service website.—
Alia Beard Rau,
USA Today,
10 June 2026
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Some find the last scene ambiguous, multivalent; some dark; others comic.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 June 2026
Adjective
-
While a campus novel may not seem like the most logical follow-up, Williams' latest — which centers on the friendship between a misanthropic professor's assistant and a student — is another pitch-black allegory told in gothic, obliterative prose.—
Tiffany Kelly,
Entertainment Weekly,
29 May 2026
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In pitch-black tunnels in a remote mine in central Laos, rescuers are risking their lives to save seven miners who have been trapped for a week.—
Matt Gutman,
CBS News,
27 May 2026
Adjective
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The exact outcome of that mini-summit remains murky.—
Andrew P. Collins,
The Drive,
11 June 2026
-
Some answers, though, fell on the edge of this somewhat murky threshold—thus the slight toss-up in final scores.—
Joseph Howlett,
Scientific American,
10 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pitch-dark.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pitch-dark. Accessed 13 Jun. 2026.
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