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真っ暗 (まっくら, makkura) Japanese meaning: pitch-dark | Kotomora
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The room went pitch-dark because of the power outage.
It's already completely dark outside.
Usage patterns 〈 場ば 所しょ 〉 が 真ま っ 暗くら になる for a place to become pitch-dark
The room went pitch-dark because of a power outage.
〈 事こと 〉 が 真ま っ 暗くら だ for a situation or prospect to look utterly bleak
With this recession, the company's future looks utterly bleak.
真ま っ 暗くら な 〈 場ば 所しょ 〉 a pitch-dark place
I walked alone down the pitch-dark night road.
Expressions 目め の 前まえ が 真ま っ 暗くら になる lose hope; feel despair; see no future · be plunged into darkness; go pitch black Kanji 真 true, reality, Buddhist sect 暗 darkness, disappear, shade Related words 暗い is the plain i-adjective for 'dark' in general, while 真っ暗 emphasizes total, complete darkness with no light at all.
暗黒 is a literary noun for 'darkness' often used in fixed phrases like 暗黒時代, while 真っ暗 is the everyday adjective for something being pitch-dark or hopeless.
絶望的 directly means 'hopeless' and focuses on despair, whereas 真っ暗 keeps the darkness metaphor to describe a bleak outlook.
Written forms 真ま っ 暗くら Usage 77%
Standard kanji spelling; high priority.
まっ 暗くら Usage 10%
真まっ 暗くら Usage 6%
まっくら Usage 6%
Etymology Formed from the prefix 真っ (ma', intensifier) + 暗 (kura, 'darkness'). The geminated consonant and emphatic prefix give it a strong, total-darkness nuance.
Kana spelling is common in everyday writing, especially in casual contexts.
