Origin: Germanic Old English suffix
Darkness has 7 different meanings across 1 category:
having a dark or somber color
"The old theater's darkness was so heavy that it seemed to press down on everyone inside."
a swarthy complexion
"The old sailor's face was weathered into a deep darkness from years of sun exposure at sea."
The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light.
"The sudden power outage plunged the room into total darkness."
In plain English: Darkness is when there isn't enough light to see anything clearly around you.
"The sudden darkness made me stumble into the table leg immediately after the lights went out."
Usage: Use darkness to describe any condition where visibility is reduced due to an absence of light, ranging from twilight shadows to total night. It functions as a mass noun and does not require pluralization when referring to the general state of being dark.
The word darkness comes from the Old English term deorcnes, which combined the root for "dark" with a suffix meaning "-ness." It entered Modern English through Middle English as derknesse, retaining its original sense of lack of light.