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

This data accumulates, turning into a digital black hole where valuable and potentially sensitive information is hidden from view. —Sean Nathaniel, Forbes, 25 Oct. 2024

Forget black holes or the origins of life—this is the sort of question that science was created to address. —Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 2 Oct. 2024

Typically, black holes form a jet at each of their poles, resulting in paired outflows traveling in opposite directions. —John Timmer, Ars Technica, 18 Sep. 2024

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