Blackly

//ˈblækli// adv

adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    With a black appearance.

    "Here and there, sun glanced off water, and slick surfaces shone blackly orange in the morning light."

  2. 2
    Darkly or gloomily.

    "Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket, and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them."

  3. 3
    Wickedly.

    "He knew himself for a lost soul, and all that he loved in the world was out in the tides. There, at any rate, he could go, too, and give back that gift of life he had so blackly misused."

  4. 4
    In accordance with black cultural sensibility.

    "Maya Angelou's ecomium^([sic])/tribute set the tone for all that followed because she spoke so passionately, personally, and Blackly about her love for Baldwin. She said that it's easy for a woman to find a lover, that she could stand on any street corner or even sit in any church pew and do that, but that brothers were much harder to come by."

Example

More examples

"Here and there, sun glanced off water, and slick surfaces shone blackly orange in the morning light."

Etymology

From black + -ly.

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