dark

CEFRA1

/dɑːk/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
adjective
Having little or no light.
02
noun
The absence of light.

Examples

All cats are grey in the dark.
Are the children afraid of the dark?

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
Deprived of sight; blind.
Transmitting, reflecting, or receiving inadequate light to render timely discernment or comprehension

More examples

In context

Dark signals should be treated as all-way stop signs.
My sister’s hair is darker than mine.
The room was too dark for reading.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The room became so blank that I could not see my hand.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

It was a dark and stormy night, the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets […]
1830, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in Paul Clifford. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 1
They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
He was, I think, at this time quite dark, and so had been for some years.
1661 April 7 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 29 March 1661]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC
Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

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Origin

adjective

From Middle English derk, from Old English deorc, from Proto-West Germanic *derk (“dark”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- (“dim, dull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“dull, dirty”).

Deep Dive

adjective

More examples

Related

Quick test

The room became so blank— that I could not see my hand.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

The room became so blank that I could not see my hand.