darkness

CEFRB1

/ˈdɑːknəs/

noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

Examples

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

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Extra meanings

The state or quality of reflecting little light, of tending to a blackish or brownish color.
The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light.
Gloom; gloominess; depression.

In context

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

Over everything was darkness and thick silence, and the smell of dust and sunflowers.
1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl
Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1
Darkness imprisoning me / All that I see / Absolute horror / I cannot live / I cannot die / Trapped in myself / Body my holding cell
1989, “One”, performed by Metallica
And now, the prophecy. One will come, the voice from the outer world, bringing the holy war, the jihad, which will cleanse the universe and bring us out of darkness.
1984, 41:18 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), spoken by Reverend Mother Ramallo, →OCLC
It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 195

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From Middle English derknesse, from Old English deorcnes; equivalent to dark + -ness.