dark age
1 : a time during which a civilization undergoes a decline: such as
a Dark Ages plural : the European historical period from about a.d. 476 to about 1000 broadly : middle ages b or Dark Age : the Greek historical period of three to four centuries from about 1100 b.c. —often plural
2 or Dark Age a : the primitive period in the development of something
—usually plural
//in the dark ages of medicine
b : a state of stagnation or decline
—usually plural
Recent Examples on the Web
//The tradition dates back to the darker ages of British politics, when the speaker acted as a messenger between Parliament and the monarch.
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Ivana Kottasová, CNN, "Order! UK Parliament elects Lindsay Hoyle as new Speaker," 4 Nov. 2019
//Leon Koopmans of the University of Groningen's Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in the Netherlands heads a team that wants to probe the universe's dark ages, before the light of the first stars.
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Daniel Clery, Science | AAAS, "Fleets of flying telescopes and returning samples from Venus among Europe's space hopes," 24 Oct. 2019
//In the dark ages of the 1970s, San Francisco once had to land in Denver after losing to the Dolphins and five players were hospitalized for dehydration.
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Dave Hyde, sun-sentinel.com, "Hyde: Dolphins’ road to No. 1 pick has to sidestep history against Chargers | Commentary," 28 Sep. 2019
//Bringing the women back to the Tour de France was an opportunity to rescue the sport from the dark ages.
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Kathryn Bertine, Outside Online, "It's Time for Pro Cycling to Treat Women Equally," 22 Aug. 2019
//Cosmologists call this period the dark ages (see ‘An Earth’s-eye view of the early Universe’).
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Davide Castelvecchi, Scientific American, "The Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Baby Universe," 26 Aug. 2019
//Slavery was present in European as well as in the Islamic Ottoman empires throughout the dark ages.
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Letter Writers, Twin Cities, "Letters: Roots of slavery in America go back thousands of years," 28 Aug. 2019
//Get our daily newsletter Vodafone’s protracted dark ages stem from a problem common throughout Europe.
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The Economist, "Vodafone’s search for the G-spot," 22 Aug. 2019
//In contrast, cycling has remained in the dark ages.
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Rachel Sturtz, Outside Online, "Meet the Billie Jean King of Cycling," 24 July 2019
First Known Use of dark age
1640, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries near dark age