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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ebony.

A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.

5 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɛb.ən.i/UK, US

  1. A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.

    uncountable · usually

  2. A tree that yields such wood.

    countable · usually

  3. A deep, dark black colour.

    countable · uncountable · usually

  4. Dark skin colour.

    uncountable · usually

  5. A black key on a piano or other keyboard instrument (as opposed to ivory).

    countable · usually
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Egyptian U13:n-Z4:M3 (hbnj)bor. Ancient Greek ἕβενος (hébenos)bor. Latin hebenus Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin ebeniusder. Middle English ebenif English heben, hebeny English ebony 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

adj/ˈɛb.ən.i/UK, US

  1. Made of ebony wood.

  2. A deep, dark black colour.

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

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Egyptian U13:n-Z4:M3 (hbnj)bor. Ancient Greek ἕβενος (hébenos)bor. Latin hebenus Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin ebeniusder. Middle English ebenif English heben, hebeny English ebony 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

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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.