ebony

1 of 2

noun

eb·​o·​ny ˈe-bə-nē 

plural ebonies

1

: a hard heavy blackish wood yielded by various tropical chiefly southeast Asian trees (genus Diospyros of the family Ebenaceae, the ebony family)

2

a

: a tree yielding ebony

b

: any of several trees yielding wood like ebony

ebony

2 of 2

adjective

1

: made of or resembling ebony

2

: black, dark

Synonyms

Adjective

• black
• pitch-black
• pitch-dark
• pitchy
• raven
• sable

Examples of ebony in a Sentence

Adjective

the ebony loudspeakers on their chrome stands look very sleek and modern

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Termite mounds and ebony trees added splotches of dark. —Mihir Zaveri, New York Times, 25 Nov. 2024

The neck is also mahogany, which is topped by an ebony fingerboard with 20 frets. —Paul Ridden, New Atlas, 11 Oct. 2024

Adjective

Designed in Thiers, France—known to blade aficionados as the knife capital of the world—the saber features an ebony wood handle and can be engraved with a custom name or date. —Sophie Dodd, Bon Appétit, 10 Dec. 2024

The characters—ebony, sandalwood, ceiba, redwood and so on—quickly come to feel like old friends, their long life histories carefully told and the stakes of their uncertain futures in the Anthropocene clearly laid out. —Joe Spring, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

probably from Late Latin hebeninus of ebony, from Greek ebeninos, from ebenos ebony, from Egyptian hbnj

First Known Use

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

1597, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

ebony

1 of 2 noun

eb·​o·​ny ˈeb-ə-nē 

plural ebonies

1

: a hard heavy blackish wood of various tropical chiefly southeast Asian trees related to the persimmon

2

: a tree that produces ebony

ebony

2 of 2 adjective

1

: made of or resembling ebony

2

: black entry 1 sense 1