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darkness - 4 dictionary results

dark⋅ness

  [dahrk-nis]
Use darkness in a Sentence
–noun
1. the state or quality of being dark: The room was in total darkness.
2. absence or deficiency of light: the darkness of night.
3. wickedness or evil: Satan, the prince of darkness.
4. obscurity; concealment: The darkness of the metaphor destroyed its effectiveness.
5. lack of knowledge or enlightenment: heathen darkness.
6. lack of sight; blindness.
Origin:
bef. 1050; ME derknesse, OE deorcnysse. See dark, -ness
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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dark   (därk)   
adj.   dark·er, dark·est
    1. Lacking or having very little light: a dark corner.
    2. Lacking brightness: a dark day.
  2. Reflecting only a small fraction of incident light.
  3. Of a shade tending toward black in comparison with other shades. Used of a color.
  4. Having a complexion that is not fair; swarthy.
  5. Served without milk or cream: dark coffee.
  6. Characterized by gloom; dismal: took a dark view of the consequences.
  7. Sullen or threatening: a dark scowl.
  8. Difficult to understand; obscure: stories that are large in scope and dark in substance.
  9. Concealed or secret; mysterious: "the dark mysteries of Africa and the fabled wonders of the East" (W. Bruce Lincoln).
  10. Lacking enlightenment, knowledge, or culture: a dark age in the history of education.
  11. Exhibiting or stemming from evil characteristics or forces; sinister: "churned up dark undercurrents of ethnic and religious hostility" (Peter Maas).
  12. Being or characterized by morbid or grimly satiric humor.
  13. Having richness or depth: a dark, melancholy vocal tone.
  14. Not giving performances; closed: The movie theater is dark on Mondays.
  15. Linguistics Pronounced with the back of the tongue raised toward the velum. Used of the sound (l) in words like full.
n.  
  1. Absence of light.
  2. A place having little or no light.
  3. Night; nightfall: home before dark.
  4. A deep hue or color.

[Middle English derk, from Old English deorc.]
dark'ish adj., dark'ly adv., dark'ness n.
Synonyms: These adjectives indicate the absence of light or clarity. Dark, the most widely applicable, can refer to insufficiency of illumination for seeing (a dark evening), deepness of shade or color (dark brown), absence of cheer (a dark, somber mood), or lack of rectitude (a dark past). Dim suggests lack of clarity of outline: "life and the memory of it cramped,/dim, on a piece of Bristol board" (Elizabeth Bishop).
It can also apply to a source of light to indicate insufficiency: "storied Windows richly dight,/Casting a dim religious light" (John Milton).
Murky implies darkness, often extreme, such as that produced by smoke or fog: "The path was altogether indiscernible in the murky darkness which surrounded them" (Sir Walter Scott).
Dusky suggests the dimness that is characteristic of diminishing light, as at twilight: "The dusky night rides down the sky,/And ushers in the morn" (Henry Fielding).
Also, it often refers to deepness of shade of a color: "A dusky blush rose to her cheek" (Edith Wharton).
Obscure usually means unclear to the mind or senses, but it can refer to physical darkness: the obscure rooms of a shuttered mansion.
Opaque means incapable of being penetrated by light: an opaque window shade
; figuratively it applies to something that is unintelligible: opaque philosophical arguments.
Shady refers literally to what is sheltered from light, especially sunlight (a shady grove of pines) or figuratively to what is of questionable honesty (shady business deals). Shadowy also implies obstructed light (a shadowy path) but may suggest shifting illumination and indistinctness: "[He] retreated from the limelight to the shadowy fringe of music history" (Charles Sherman).
It can also refer to something that seems to lack substance and is mysterious or sinister: a shadowy figure in a black cape.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Darkness

Dark"ness\, n. 1. The absence of light; blackness; obscurity; gloom.

And darkness was upon the face of the deep. --Gen. i. 2.

2. A state of privacy; secrecy.

What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. --Matt. x. 27.

3. A state of ignorance or error, especially on moral or religious subjects; hence, wickedness; impurity.

Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. --John. iii. 19.

Pursue these sons of darkness: drive them out From all heaven's bounds. --Milton.

4. Want of clearness or perspicuity; obscurity; as, the darkness of a subject, or of a discussion.

5. A state of distress or trouble.

A day of clouds and of thick darkness. --Joel. ii. 2.

Prince of darkness, the Devil; Satan. "In the power of the Prince of darkness." --Locke.

Syn: Darkness, Dimness, Obscurity, Gloom.

Usage: Darkness arises from a total, and dimness from a partial, want of light. A thing is obscure when so overclouded or covered as not to be easily perceived. As tha shade or obscurity increases, it deepens into gloom. What is dark is hidden from view; what is obscure is difficult to perceive or penetrate; the eye becomes dim with age; an impending storm fills the atmosphere with gloom. When taken figuratively, these words have a like use; as, the darkness of ignorance; dimness of discernment; obscurity of reasoning; gloom of superstition.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : darkness
Spanish: oscuridad,
German: die Dunkelheit,
Japanese: やみ
More Translations »

Darkness

The plague (the ninth) of darkness in Egypt (Ex. 10:21) is described as darkness "which may be felt." It covered "all the land of Egypt," so that "they saw not one another." It did not extend to the land of Goshen (ver. 23). When Jesus hung upon the cross (Matt. 27:45; Luke 23:44), from the "sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour." On Mount Sinai, Moses (Ex. 20:21) "drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." This was the "thick cloud upon the mount" in which Jehovah was when he spake unto Moses there. The Lord dwelt in the cloud upon the mercy-seat (1 Kings 8:12), the cloud of glory. When the psalmist (Ps. 97:2) describes the inscrutable nature of God's workings among the sons of men, he says, "Clouds and darkness are round about him." God dwells in thick darkness. Darkness (Isa. 13:9, 10; Matt. 24:29) also is a symbol of the judgments that attend on the coming of the Lord. It is a symbol of misery and adversity (Job 18:6; Ps. 107:10; Isa. 8:22; Ezek. 30:18). The "day of darkness" in Joel 2:2, caused by clouds of locusts, is a symbol of the obscurity which overhangs all divine proceedings. "Works of darkness" are impure actions (Eph. 5:11). "Outer darkness" refers to the darkness of the streets in the East, which are never lighted up by any public or private lamps after nightfall, in contrast with the blaze of cheerful light in the house. It is also a symbol of ignorance (Isa. 9:2; 60:2; Matt. 6:23) and of death (Job 10:21; 17:13).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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