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 of black hole

• emptiness
• vacancy
• void
• blank

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

Smart, anti-theft crossbody bags An overfilled tote can easily turn into a black hole mid-travel—everything sinks to the bottom, and nothing feels secure. —Chaise Sanders, Travel + Leisure, 1 May 2026

Ships are vanishing into digital black holes only to materialize hours later on the other side of Hormuz with the transit completed in total silence. —Erik Bethel, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2026

That is, however, an issue because the merger and feeding processes that allow black holes to reach masses of millions of billions of times that of the sun should take at least 1 billion years to reach fruition. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 27 Apr. 2026

Although the gravity of a black hole is intense—that’s its defining characteristic—the force drops off rapidly with distance. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 24 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1963, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for black hole

• bankroll
• bedroll
• borehole
• cajole
• catchpole
• charcoal
• condole
• control
• dipole
• downhole
• enroll
• extol

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