black hole

noun

: 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

: something resembling a black hole: such as

: something that consumes a resource continually

a financial black hole

: an empty space : void

… the archives of the past few years are a black hole.

David Herman

: a dark and seemingly inescapable state or situation

the black hole of depression

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web The striker position, though, has been a bit of a black hole.

Andrew Beaton, WSJ, 15 Nov. 2022 The gamma-ray burst — witnessed as a long, bright pulse of light — was the birth cry of a black hole.

Katie Hunt, CNN, 22 Oct. 2022 The jets are one way astronomers can indirectly infer the presence of a black hole.

Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 13 Oct. 2022 Pitts describes it as a performance-art odyssey that includes movement, lighting, video projections, cinematography and original sound to evoke the mystery of a black hole and to tell a story of three Black artists.

Sarah L. Kaufman, Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2022 But Garza would be happy with even just one, because in the therapeutic black hole of baldness, his patients are becoming increasingly desperate and helpless.

WIRED, 8 Sep. 2022 Why this relationship exists is one of the outstanding problems in black hole and galaxy astronomy right now.

Quanta Magazine, 18 May 2022 Now, though, scientists have evidence of magnetic reversal in a black hole.

Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 10 May 2022 Its final-hour implosion left behind a negative space—a black hole in the zeitgeist.

Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'black hole.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.