DARKENS Synonyms: 132 Similar and Opposite Words

darkens

verb

present tense third-person singular of darken

as in frowns

to take on a gloomy or forbidding look his face slowly darkened as we told him the sad news

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as in fades

to grow dark the sky darkened as a storm moved in

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as in obscures

to make dark, dim, or indistinct years of accumulated grime have darkened the painting until it can barely be seen

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as in taints

to affect slightly with something morally bad or undesirable the scandal darkened his otherwise sterling reputation

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of darkens Pour in the tomato puree, mix gently, partially cover, and cook until the puree darkens and thickens and has mostly been absorbed by the rice, about 3 minutes. — ABC News, 17 Sep. 2026 Some woods are very photosensitive, like cherry and walnut, but cherry darkens with sun exposure while walnut fades. — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 13 Sep. 2026 When a treatment starts, the room darkens, and chromatherapy lights cast soft purple, blue, and red hues across the room as a soft mist showers down from the ceiling. — Jen Murphy, Travel + Leisure, 7 Sep. 2026 Saturn is evident for much of the night, appearing low in the eastern sky as the sky darkens and reaching its highest point in the southern sky soon after midnight. — Joe Rao, Space.com, 1 Sep. 2026 The planet becomes easier to identify as the sky darkens, making the best time for viewing during the late-night and early-morning hours. — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 24 Aug. 2026 Young agent Nina is recuperating in Corfu after a botched mission in the Balkans, but the idyllic landscape darkens when an agent is murdered. — Monitor Reviewers, Christian Science Monitor, 21 Aug. 2026 Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images A total solar eclipse darkens the skies over northeastern Spain, with Corbera dâEbre, in Tarragona, Spain, on August 12, 2026, among the locations along the path of totality. — Sawdah Bhaimiya, CNBC, 13 Aug. 2026 The sky darkens to twilight, exposing the sun's corona and sometimes revealing stars and planets as temperatures briefly cool. — Stephen J. Beard, USA Today, 11 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for darkens

Verb

Don’t Kill Reach with External Links Like any business that makes money from advertising, LinkedIn frowns upon directing people away from LinkedIn to another site.

— William Arruda, Forbes.com, 28 May 2026
Here is our review of a 2025-26 campaign that’s ended with more smiles than frowns.

— Carl Anka, New York Times, 26 May 2026

Definition of frowns

Verb

Community organizations spent decades cultivating wealthy baby boomer donors, and so that connection fades with each generation removed from the original donors.

— Sydney Lake, Fortune, 6 Oct. 2026
Its manganese spins continue fluctuating in preferred directions after long-range magnetic order fades.

— Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of fades

Verb

Both sides have been accused of serious violations, but Hudson told Fox News Digital that treating their records as interchangeable obscures an important distinction.

— Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 28 Sep. 2026
There’s a certain philosophy to dressing the body in Japan where the clothing obscures the body.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of obscures

Verb

Four families living near Meta’s Newton County data center are suing the tech giant, claiming the massive facility taints their drinking water and disrupts their daily lives.

— AJ Willingham, AJC.com, 2 Sep. 2026
That’s been an idiotic trope for too long — that participating in the business side of it taints you.

— Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026

Definition of taints

Verb

Reducing the administrative work required to deliver care lowers the cost of delivering it.

— Bill Miller, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2026
The resulting walk-away safe design prevents fuel meltdowns by basic physical principles, which significantly lowers manufacturing costs and trims regulatory hurdles.

— Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of lowers

Verb

But even with 22 tracks to work with, the sound too often defaults to a similar muted backdrop, which blurs some of the less distinct songs together.

— Molly Mary O’Brien, Pitchfork, 7 Oct. 2026
Hoover’s 2018 novel, Verity, is a gripping mystery where trust is elusive and the line between fiction and reality blurs.

— Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of blurs

Verb

Especially the guy who bangs a wrecking ball against the historic East Wing to make room for an incongruous ballroom monstrosity, who mars the sacred Oval Office with gold glitter and paves over the lovely Rose Garden.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2026
Jacob Whitehead Homophobic chant mars Mexico’s win Before the World Cup, the Mexican football federation launched a campaign that featured the heroes of the country’s 1986 World Cup side.

— Jack Lang, New York Times, 26 June 2026

Definition of mars

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darkening

darkens

dark horse

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“Darkens.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/darkens. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of darkens

verb

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