Black

How to spell black

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce black

What does black mean?

1. adjectiveOf the darkest colour, like coal or ink, reflecting no light.
2. nounThe darkest colour, or clothing of that colour.

Black in a sentence

• adjective

  She wore a black coat to the interview.

• noun

  The designer used a deep black throughout the room.

• adjective

  The new car came in metallic black paint.

• noun

  In chess the player controlling black moved second.

Where does black come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends directly from the Old English blæc, which meant 'dark' or 'the colour of ink', and it is one of the oldest colour terms in the language. It traces back to a Proto-Germanic form blakaz, with the underlying Indo-European root *bhleg- carrying the sense of 'to burn' or 'to shine', the idea being that something scorched or charred turns dark. A curious twist is that the same burning root also produced 'bleach' and the Old English blac meaning 'pale' or 'bright', so two near-opposite words grew from one fiery ancestor and were only kept apart in spelling by chance. The modern form settled early and has barely changed, which is why it stays reassuringly simple to spell. Its straightforward consonant cluster 'bl' and hard final 'ck' have remained stable since well before the Norman Conquest.

How the word is built

• black (from Old English blæc: dark, ink); a single unanalysable root with no prefix or suffix