MEANING
Not knowing important information about a situation because it has not been made available to you.
Use it for
describing someone excluded from information; saying that a decision has not been explained; showing deliberate withholding of updates; distinguishing ignorance from an informed disagreementSeparates being uninformed from simply being uncertain after receiving evidence. Writing functions: Lack of information.
Words that belong together
- keep someone in the dark
- leave someone in the dark
- in the dark about a decision
On the page
Staff remained in the dark about which offices would close.
If the timetable changes, tell us rather than leaving us in the dark.
Word forms
- Base
- in the dark
Usage notes
Idiomatic prepositional phrase: be in the dark about something; keep or leave someone in the dark. The article the is retained. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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