Wiktionary

black-and-white

See also: black and white

English edit

 
a black-and-white photo.

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

  • Audio (AU)(file)

Adjective edit

black-and-white (comparative more black-and-white, superlative most black-and-white)

  1. Of art, a photograph or photography, using shades of grey rather than shades of any other color.
  2. Of a television or monitor, displaying images in shades of grey rather than color.
  3. (figurative, idiomatic) Classifying people, objects or concepts as two polar opposites, especially "right" and "wrong"; dichotomous and inflexible.
    • 1999, Cynthia Hendershot, Paranoia, the Bomb, and 1950s Science Fiction Films, Popular Press, →ISBN, page 28:
      The pseudo-community of enemies in The Day the Earth Stood Still consists of politicians, the military, and businessmen, whereas the pseudo-community of friends, the element that complements the enemies and reinforces the black-and-white morality of paranoia (Cameron, "Revisited" 56), is composed of scientists, women, and children.
    • 2008, Linus Torvalds, Re: [stable] Linux 2.6.25.10, LKML; quoted in: Bezpieczeństwo, Jacek Popławski, pl.comp.os.advocacy, Usenet
      Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't stand.
    • 2011, Sandra Orchard, Deep Cover, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 144:
      “It's complicated. Not everything is black-and-white, Ginny. Sometimes, it's just gray.” The disillusionment in Ginny's eyes hurt bone-deep. She was a black-and-white kind of person. Actions were either right or wrong. No room for in-betweens.
    • 2011, Aileen Zeitz Collucci, Big Picture Thinking: Using Central Coherence Theory to Support Social Skills : a Book for Students, AAPC Publishing, →ISBN, page 82:
      You could say that inflexible thinking is black-and-white thinking and flexible thinking is rainbow thinking. Black-and-white thinkers have difficulty being flexible in their mind and seeing different possibilities and perspectives.
  4. Alternative form of black and white (easily divided into diametrically opposing camps)

Synonyms edit

Antonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also edit

Noun edit

black-and-white (plural black-and-whites)

  1. Alternative form of black and white
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=black-and-white&oldid=78813459"