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

From the development of prophetic black hole visuals to revolutionary production design for IMAX, further context is provided by colleagues and fans including director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and director Denis Villeneuve (Dune). —Tim Lammers, Forbes, 10 Dec. 2024

And all wonder why the nation fell into a black hole over the past four years! —Letters To The Editor, Orlando Sentinel, 30 Nov. 2024

The trio of space probes will detect and measure gravitational waves originating from places such as smaller stellar mass black holes orbiting supermassive black holes. —Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 26 Oct. 2024

Cold dark matter wouldn’t interact with anything except via gravity, so the gravitational influence of the black holes should kick it out of the vicinity well before the black holes reach the final parsec. —Jonathan O’Callaghan, WIRED, 1 Dec. 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