different between darkness vs dullness

English

Alternative forms

• darckness (obsolete)
• darkeness (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English derknesse, from Old English deorcnes; equivalent to dark +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d??kn?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d??kn?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)kn?s, -??(?)kn?s
• Hyphenation: dark?ness

Noun

darkness (countable and uncountable, plural darknesses)

1. (uncountable) The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light.
   • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl

     Over everything was darkness and thick silence, and the smell of dust and sunflowers.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

2. (uncountable) The state or quality of reflecting little light, of tending to a blackish or brownish color.

3. (uncountable) Gloom; gloominess; depression.
4. (countable) The product of being dark.
5. (uncountable) Lack of understanding or compassion; spiritual or mental blindness.
6. (uncountable) Secrecy; concealment.
7. (uncountable) Lack of knowledge; obscurity or meaning or intelligibility; the unknown.
8. (uncountable) Hell.

Antonyms

• lightness
• light

Derived terms

• pitch darkness
• semi-darkness, semidarkness

Translations

Anagrams

• Danskers

English

Alternative forms

• dulness

Etymology

From dull +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?l.n?s/

Noun

dullness (usually uncountable, plural dullnesses)

1. The quality of being slow of understanding things; stupidity.
2. The quality of being uninteresting; boring or irksome.
3. Lack of interest or excitement.
4. The lack of visual brilliance; want of sheen.

5. (of an edge) bluntness.
6. The quality of not perceiving or kenning things distinctly.

7. (archaic) Drowsiness.
   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I scene ii^[1]:

     Prospero: […] Thou art inclin'd to sleep. 'Tis a good dulness, / And give it way— I know thou canst not choose.

Translations