Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Extremely black, pitch-black: Describes something that is completely and intensely black, often with a sense of depth or impenetrability, like thick smoke, a moonless night, or dense soot.
   • Inky-black: Having the deep, dark, and often uniform color of ink.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Bầu trời đêm không trăng đen kịt. (The moonless night sky was pitch-black.)
  • Khói từ đám cháy bốc lên đen kịt. (The smoke from the fire rose, inky-black.)
  • Căn phòng không có cửa sổ, tối đen kịt. (The windowless room was utterly dark and black.)

Advanced Usage

• "đen kịt như mực": as black as ink. This simile emphasizes the depth of the black color.
  • Mái tóc cô ấy dài và đen kịt như mực. (Her long hair was as black as ink.)
• "đen kịt một màu": uniformly pitch-black. Used to describe an area or object with no variation in its deep black color.
  • Sau cơn bão, cả bầu trời đen kịt một màu. (After the storm, the entire sky was uniformly pitch-black.)

Variants and Related Words

• Đen (adj): Black. The base word, less intense than "đen kịt".
  • Con mèo đen. (The black cat.)
• Đen thui (adj): Also means very black, often used interchangeably with "đen kịt" but can sometimes imply a dull, sooty black.
  • Cái nồi bị cháy đen thui. (The pot was burnt black.)
• Đen nhẻm (adj): Smudged with black, grimy. Focuses on being dirtied or stained black.
  • Tay nó đen nhẻm vì than. (His hands were grimy with coal.)

Synonyms

• Tối om (adj): Pitch-dark, very dark (focuses more on the absence of light than the color).
  • Trong hang động tối om. (It's pitch-dark inside the cave.)
• Đen sì (adj): Jet-black, very black (similar intensity to "đen kịt").

Related Phrases / Idioms

• Tương lai đen kịt: A pitch-black/dark future. An idiom meaning a future that looks hopeless, grim, or full of difficulty.
  • Sau khi công ty phá sản, tương lai của họ có vẻ đen kịt. (After the company went bankrupt, their future looked pitch-black.)

1. Black, inky-black