Ebony

adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·3 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    a very dark black wordnet
  3. 3
    A tree that yields such wood. countable, usually

    "“You live up the road past the ebony tree, right?” he asked, looking past me."

  4. 4
    tropical tree of southern Asia having hard dark-colored heartwood used in cabinetwork wordnet
  5. 5
    A deep, dark black colour. countable, uncountable, usually

    "Near-synonyms: onyx, raven"

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    hard dark-colored heartwood of the ebony tree; used in cabinetwork and for piano keys wordnet
  2. 7
    Dark skin colour. uncountable, usually

    "At dawn the hunters were off. There were fifty sleek, black warriors, and in their midst, lithe and active as a young forest god, strode Tarzan of the Apes, his brown skin contrasting oddly with the ebony of his companions. Except for color he was one of them."

  3. 8
    A black key on a piano or other keyboard instrument (as opposed to ivory). countable, usually

    "Ebony and ivory / Live together in perfect harmony / Side by side on my piano keyboard / Oh lord, why don't we?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Made of ebony wood.
  2. 2
    A deep, dark black colour.

    "Near-synonyms: onyx, raven"

  3. 3
    Dark-skinned; black; especially in reference to African-Americans.

    "He called the ebony mistress of the establishment to him, and speaking to her kindly and winningly, as any dutiful husband should, told her to make the change, which she did."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of a very dark black wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A female given name from English.
  2. 2
    A stereotypical African-American woman. derogatory

Synonyms

All synonyms
ebonacaciaailanthusalderalligator pearallspice

Antonyms

All antonyms
ivory

Example

More examples

"His locks were as black as ebony and fell upon his neck which the sun had tanned; but one might have imagined that it was the shadow of his hair that thus darkened the colour of his skin."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From earlier heben, hebeny, from Middle English ebenif, hebenyf (influenced by Late Latin hebeninus), from Ecclesiastical Latin ebenius (“of ebony”), from Latin hebenus (“ebon tree”), from Ancient Greek ἔβενος (ébenos), from Egyptian hbnj, U13:n-Z4:M3

Etymology 2

From ebony. First used by African Americans in the 1970s.

Related phrases

Ceylon ebonyIndia ebonyJamaican ebonySamoan ebonyTexas ebonyWest Indian ebonyebony boghaunterebony bugebony spleenwortgreen ebonyafrican american

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