darkness
/ˈdɑːknəs
/noun [mass noun]
1The partial or total absence of light: the office was in darkness...
- It tries to avoid both strong light and total darkness.
- The bottomless pit is the earth in total darkness with no light from the sun, every island destroyed, the earth's surface broken up.
- They were flown in total darkness without lights and reference points.
1.1Night: they began to make camp before darkness fell...
- The three-day Leeds Festival kicked off with some of the world's loudest bands - but no serious trouble before darkness fell last night.
- Police called off co-ordinated searches for the men last night as darkness fell.
- As darkness fell the following night, the same operation was repeated, netting an additional 84 arrests.
Synonyms
night, night-time, dark, hours of darkness
1.2The quality of being dark in colour: the darkness of his jacket...
- Now the correct colour and degree of darkness have been restored.
- The lightness or darkness of a color affects whether it can absorb or reflect heat and light.
- Her hair was pulled back into a tight high ponytail; her hair was also streaked with blond and red over the darkness of her natural dark brown.
2Wickedness or evil: the forces of darkness...
- This awakening symbolises the triumph of good, winning against the evil forces of darkness that are represented by the winter.
- And we hold you up in pride as our symbol in the fight of Good against the forces of darkness and evil.
- It scared her the way she would crave that darkness, the wickedness, the evil forces.
Synonyms
evil, wickedness, corruption, sin, sinfulness, iniquity, immorality, devilry, the Devil, hell
2.1Unhappiness or gloom: moments of darkness were rare...
- What I wanted was darkness, unhappiness… I thought of giving Xander a call back.
- Just the name - borough of crows! - suggests darkness and gloom.
- Not all elements of Tent City life are shrouded in gloom and darkness, however.
2.2Secrecy or mystery: they drew a veil of darkness across the proceedings...
- His arrival was shrouded in darkness and secrecy.
- His darkness and mystery were personified in the character being a Vampiric elf.
- There is energy and mischief, but it is always countered by mystery and darkness.
2.3Lack of spiritual or intellectual enlightenment; ignorance: his accomplishments shone in a world of darkness...
- It's not true the world's oldest continent was merely an area of darkness that submissively awaited enlightenment.
- We are fast drifting into an era of great spiritual darkness!
- As the conventional story goes, once upon a time the West slumbered in intellectual darkness.