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

• blank
• blankness
• emptiness
• vacancy
• vacuity
• void

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

The massive black hole jets could help answer both. —Ashley Strickland, CNN, 25 Sep. 2024

The algebraic black hole calculation more rigorously reinforces another message from Hawking and Bekenstein’s work: Entropy increases in proportion to the black hole’s growing surface area. —Quanta Magazine, 25 Sep. 2024

And black holes, the researchers say, are a prime example of the properties of dark matter. —Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2024

The James Webb Space Telescope has spent three years observing remote galaxies, black holes and distant planets, but its latest discovery was a little bit closer to home. —Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 17 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1964, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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