black hole

noun

Definition of black holenext
as in emptiness
empty space discovered that there was a black hole in the library's collection with regard to her topic

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of black hole The stellar core implodes into the black hole, and a GRB fueled by a vast amount of material from all around it is born. — Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026 Astronomers estimate that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, has churned out more than 10 million black holes over its 13-billion-year history. — Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 18 Oct. 2026 The absence of standardised testing further means that data is lost, which the report described as a data black hole. — William Jones, Miami Herald, 12 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for black hole
Recent Examples of Synonyms for black hole
  1. emptiness
  2. vacancy
  3. void
  4. blank
Noun
  • There is an emptiness left behind that cannot be filled, and there are so many of us who will never be quite the same without you.
    — Chris Gardner, HollywoodReporter, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Occasional moments of real, spontaneous joy emerge, and others reveal the crushing emptiness of lives going nowhere, but the script doesn’t lean too hard in either direction.
    — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of emptiness
Noun
  • Jeske, who heads the Quantum Sensing Group at Fraunhofer at the research institute, was the the first to come up with a theoretical model for a magnetic-field-sensitive laser system using diamond with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers a decade ago.
    — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 22 Oct. 2026
  • The White House’s press secretary vacancy won’t necessarily keep the briefing room closed.
    — Shelby Talcott, semafor.com, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of vacancy
Noun
  • In the months that followed, Julian Lage, Joel Paterson, Jad Tarik, and now Seal have stepped in to fill the void in various permutations.
    — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2026
  • And that’s what makes a player such as Kapanen such a natural fit to step into a massive void left by the team’s captain and conscience.
    — Arpon Basu, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of void
Noun
  • With so few ancient samples of dodo DNA surviving—and that which does exist having degraded over the centuries—the analytic and number-crunching power of AI is just what’s needed to fill in the genetic blanks.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 14 Oct. 2026
  • This comes at the same time state Republican party leaders are urging voters to rank Republicans on the ballot and leave the Democrats blank.
    — Will Weissert, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of blank

Browse Nearby Words

blackheads
black hole
black holes
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Black hole.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/black%20hole. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on black hole

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about black hole

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of grotesque

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All