black-and-white

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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]

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See also[edit]

Noun[edit]

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

  1. Alternative form of black and white
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