Words / B2

DAHKN-uh-s/ˈdɑːknəs/

Darkness is the state of having little or no light (usually uncountable); also evil or ignorance in formal writing: hours of darkness; in darkness. Dark is the adjective (already in the dictionary); night is a time, not the absence of light itself. Hours of darkness featured in the climate table. Mix-up: darkness vs dark ness as two words; gloom; do not write darkness for a horror caption with no measured hours or a named metaphor in the source.

Meaning

The state of having little or no light (usually uncountable); also evil or ignorance in formal writing.

Examples

• “Hours of darkness featured in the climate table, not a horror caption.”
• “A darkness in the poem still needs the named image, the literature paper said, which is the figurative sense.”

Good to know

hours of darkness; in / into darkness; darkness fell. Adjective: dark. Contrast: daylight / daytime. Trap: a film caption with no data. Geography, science, and literature. Absence of light — quote the hours, or name the metaphor.

Near in meaning

gloom, night, shadow

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