Dark Ages

noun

1. the period in European history from about a.d. 476 to about 1000.
2. the whole of the Middle Ages, from about a.d. 476 to the Renaissance.
3. (often lowercase) a period or stage marked by repressiveness, a lack of enlightenment or advanced knowledge, etc.

Dark Ages

plural noun

1. the period from about the late 5th century ad to about 1000 ad , once considered an unenlightened period
2. (occasionally) the whole medieval period

Dark Ages

1. A term sometimes applied to the early Middle Ages , the first few centuries after the Fall of Rome . The term suggests prevailing ignorance and barbarism, but there were forces for culture and enlightenment throughout the period.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Dark Ages¹

First recorded in 1720–30

Example Sentences

Anglo-Saxons began to arrive in England in small numbers from AD410, and by AD500 were being fiercely resisted, in a period which used to be known as the Dark Ages, but is now called early medieval by historians.

From BBC

Trump repels them because he wants to go back to the dark ages of racial and gender apartheid.

From Salon

And in terms of what we're doing here, they want to abolish all health care for women, to take us back beyond earlier than the Dark Ages.

From Salon

And I think that these people are living in the dark ages.

From Salon

As blunt methods for complex problems go, the Trump administration’s decision to tackle immigration by wresting thousands of children away from their parents was some Dark Ages stuff, a fearsome sign that in our current political landscape, open cruelty was gaining ground.

From Los Angeles Times