Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell darkness

hear itdark·ness/'dɑrknɪs/nounPrefixes and work

What it means: Absence of light or illumination.

In a sentence: The cat hid in the darkness under the bed.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double s. Often misspelled as darknes or darness.

Same family: darken, darkest, darkly, darkened, shadow. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Darkness comes from Old English 'deorcnysse,' meaning 'absence of light.' The ending '-ness' is a very old suffix in English that turns qualities like 'dark,' 'kind,' or 'happy' into abstract nouns such as 'darkness,' 'kindness,' and 'happiness.'

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