black hole

noun

1

: a celestial object that has a gravitational field so strong that light cannot escape it and that is believed to be created especially in the collapse of a very massive star

2

: something resembling a black hole: such as

a

: something that consumes a resource continually

a financial black hole

b

: an empty space : void

… the archives of the past few years are a black hole.

—David Herman

c

: a dark and seemingly inescapable state or situation

the black hole of depression

Synonyms

• emptiness
• vacancy
• void
• blank

Examples of black hole in a Sentence

discovered that there was a black hole in the library's collection with regard to her topic

Recent Examples on the Web

Because, in terms of its offensive contribution, the catching spot is a sinkhole inside a black hole. —Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 July 2025

Alternate universes never bode well, though, and this one soon is collapsing into a black hole. —Tom Gliatto, People.com, 8 July 2025

Stellar models that use the standard and weaker mass-loss recipes can produce intermediate-mass black holes. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 3 July 2025

Its gravity is extremely powerful, not as strong as a black hole, according to Chicago's Adler Planetarium, but roughly 100,000 to 300,000 times the gravity on Earth. —Chad Murphy, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1964, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for black hole

• bankroll
• bedroll
• borehole
• cajole
• catchpole
• charcoal
• condole
• control
• dipole
• downhole
• enroll
• extol

Kids Definition

black hole

noun

: an invisible region believed to exist in space having a very strong gravitational field and thought to be caused by the collapse of a star