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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

blackface.

The practice in which a nonblack person blackens their face using theatrical makeup in order to portray a caricature of a black person.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈblækˌfeɪs/
  1. The practice in which a nonblack person blackens their face using theatrical makeup in order to portray a caricature of a black person.

    uncountable
  2. A sheep of the Scottish Blackface breed.

    countable
  3. Synonym of boldface.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *blakaz Proto-West Germanic *blak Old English blæc Middle English blak English black Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Proto-Italic *-jēs Latin -iēs Latin faciēs Late Latin facia Old French facebor. Middle English face English face English blackface From black + face.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.