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

Some are translucent spheres that are eerily silent, seemingly sucking in all the noise around them, ready to engulf all who would wander near them, like a black hole. —Issy Van Der Velde, Rolling Stone, 20 Nov. 2024

The group calculated that approximately one in three gravitational waves of the right sort (neutron star collisions work best since their mergers last longer than black hole mergers) would make the bar ring with one quantum unit of energy. —Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024

Scientists looking at things like black holes and quantum theory are suggesting that o1 is going to help them more than previous models. —John Werner, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2024

Supernovae, meanwhile, occur at the end of a star’s life and result in the formation of either an ultra-dense neutron star or a black hole. —Alexa Robles-Gil, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Oct. 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