What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Darken vs Shadow - What's the difference?

darken | shadow |

As verbs the difference between darken and shadow

is that darken is to make dark or darker by reducing light while shadow is to block light or radio transmission.

As a noun shadow is

a dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.

darken

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make dark or darker by reducing light.
  • * Bible, Exodus x. 15
  • They [locusts] covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened .
  • To become dark or darker (having less light).
  • To make dark or darker in colour.
  • To become dark or darker in colour.
  • To render gloomy, darker in mood
  • * Shakespeare
  • With these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not / The mirth of the feast.
  • To become gloomy, darker in mood
  • To blind, impair eyesight
  • * Bible, Rom xi. 10
  • Let their eyes be darkened , that they may not see.
  • To be blinded, loose clear vision
  • To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible.
  • * Bible, Job xxxviii. 2
  • Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Such was his wisdom that his confidence did seldom darken his foresight.
  • To make foul; to sully; to tarnish.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I must not think there are / Evils enough to darken all his goodness.

    Conjugation

    (en-conj-simple)

    Derived terms

    * darkener * darken someone's door

    Synonyms

    * blacken

    Anagrams

    * * * * * English ergative verbs

    shadow

    English

    (wikipedia shadow)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
  • Relative darkness, especially as caused by the interruption of light; gloom, obscurity.
  • * Denham
  • Night's sable shadows from the ocean rise.
  • * Spenser
  • In secret shadow from the sunny ray, / On a sweet bed of lilies softly laid.
  • (obsolete) A reflected image, as in a mirror or in water.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • That which looms as though a shadow.
  • *
  • Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow' cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose ' shadow falls over us all.
  • A small degree; a shade.
  • * Bible, James i. 17
  • no variableness, neither shadow of turning
  • An imperfect and faint representation.
  • He came back from war the shadow of a man.
  • * Bible, Hebrews x. 1
  • the law having a shadow of good things to come
  • * Milton
  • [types] and shadows of that destined seed
  • One who secretly or furtively follows another.
  • * Milton
  • Sin and her shadow Death
  • A type of lettering form of word processors that makes a cubic effect.
  • An influence, especially a pervasive or a negative one.
  • *
  • A spirit; a ghost; a shade.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Hence, horrible shadow !
  • (obsolete, Latinism) An uninvited guest accompanying one who was invited.
  • (Nares)

    Usage notes

    * A person (or object) is said to "cast", "have", or "throw" a shadow if that shadow is caused by the person (either literally, by eclipsing a light source, or figuratively). The shadow may then be described as the shadow "cast" or "thrown" by the person, or as the shadow "of" the person, or simply as the person's shadow.

    Derived terms

    * backshadowing * foreshadowing * rain shadow * shadow acting * shadow boxing * shadow cabinet * shadow government * shadow minister * shadow play * shadow price * sideshadowing * unshadow

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To block light or radio transmission.
  • Looks like that cloud's going to shadow us.
  • (espionage) To secretly or discreetly track or follow another, to keep under surveillance.
  • To accompany a professional during the working day, so as to learn about an occupation one intends to take up.
  • (programming) To make an identifier, usually a variable, inaccessible by declaring another of the same name within the scope of the first.
  • (computing) To apply the shadowing process to (the contents of ROM).
  • Derived terms

    * overshadow