Standard Lemma guide

blackamoor

name · noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈblæk.əˌmɔː(ɹ)/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈblæk.əˌmʊə(ɹ)/
  • General-American: /ˈblæk.əˌmɔɹ/
  • General-American: /ˈblæk.əˌmʊɹ/

1

name

Meaning 1

A village in Blackburn with Darwen borough, Lancashire, England (OS grid ref SD6925).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A person with dark black skin, especially one from north Africa.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, offensive

Topics: government, heraldry, hobbies, lifestyle, monarchy, nobility, politics

Examples

  • Argent, three blackamoors’ heads couped sable, capped or, fretty gules.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A black slave or servant, and hence any slave, servant, inferior, or child.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: offensive

Examples

  • 1893, Annotation to The Diary of Samuel Pepys by "Mary", http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/08/10/index.php citing Restoration London, Liza Picard, pages 178-179. In 1596 Elizabeth I had already decreed that all "blackamoors" should be sent back to Spain or Portugal as they were disturbing local labour markets. It became very fashionable for the wealthy to have "blackamoor" page boys and personal servants, as their complexions set off the pale-skinned beauty of the women of the family.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Alternative letter-case form of blackamoor.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, archaic, obsolete, offensive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Black, Black person, Negro, Negroid

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul, person of color, person of colour

Narrower terms: Negress, Black man, Black woman, colored person, colored, darky, darkie, darkey, nigger, nigga, spade, coon, jigaboo, nigra, Tom, Uncle Tom, pickaninny, piccaninny, picaninny

History

Etymology

From Blakemor (first recorded use in 1210), from Old English blæc (“black”) + mór (“moor”).

From earlier blackmoor + -a-. By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor.

Across languages

Translations

12 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: не́гър (négǎr) — person with dark skin
  • Bulgarian: не́гърка (négǎrka) — person with dark skin
  • Czech: mouřenín — person with dark skin
  • Dutch: Moor — person with dark skin
  • Dutch: moriaan — person with dark skin
  • Finnish: murjaani — person with dark skin
  • German: Mohr — person with dark skin
  • Polish: Murzyn — person with dark skin
  • Polish: Murzynka — person with dark skin
  • Dutch: neger — black slave or servant
  • French: nègre — black slave or servant
  • Polish: czarnuch — black slave or servant