Blackened

adj, verb

adj, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of blacken form-of, participle, past
Adjective
  1. 1
    Darkened to the point of appearing black; as

    "[...] after journeying across pleasant agricultural countryside to Leicester and thence though the blackened and busy industrial area that stretches almost unbrokenly for over 100 miles from Trent through Rotherham and Leeds to Keighley, [...]."

  2. 2
    Darkened to the point of appearing black; as:; Synonym of charred.
  3. 3
    Darkened to the point of appearing black; as:; Synonym of blued.
Adjective
  1. 1
    (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood wordnet
  2. 2
    darkened by smoke wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
besmirchedblackbluedcharredcoloreddarkened

Example

More examples

"There he fell asleep, and while he slept, his wooden feet began to burn. Slowly, very slowly, they blackened and turned to ashes."

Etymology

From Middle English blakend, blakind, blakkenid, blakenid, equivalent to blacken + -ed.

Related phrases

pitch-blackened

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.