Meaning & use
black marble
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Meanings
noununcountable
A dark-colored stone, often polished, used for floors, walls, statues, and decorative objects.
Grammar: No plural when you mean the material: the table is made of black marble.
Patterns
- made of black marble
- a black marble floor
- polished black marble
The hotel lobby has a black marble floor that shines under the lights.
They carved the statue out of black marble.
The countertop is black marble, so it hides stains well.
nouncountable
A single small dark glass or stone ball used in children's games.
Grammar: Countable here, so you can say one black marble or three black marbles.
Patterns
- a black marble
- play with black marbles
- a bag of black marbles
He won a black marble from his friend in the playground game.
She keeps a jar of black marbles on her desk.
One black marble rolled under the sofa.
Word forms
| plural (sense 2) | black marbles |
|---|
Common combinations
- black marble floor
- The museum entrance has a black marble floor.
- polished black marble
- The columns are made of polished black marble.
- black marble statue
- A black marble statue stands in the garden.
- black marble countertop
- They chose a black marble countertop for the kitchen.
- veined black marble
- The wall is covered in veined black marble.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dark stone
- A general term for any dark-colored rock; black marble is more specific and suggests a polished, decorative surface.
- onyx
- A different dark stone with bands of color; use onyx for that particular mineral, not for marble.
Opposites
Word family
- marble noun
- The general name for this type of stone in any color.
- marbled adjective
- Having a pattern of streaks like marble.
- marbly adjective
- Rare; describing something that looks or feels like marble.
Commonly confused: black marble or marble? black marble or granite?
black marble vs marble
Marble alone means the stone in general; black marble names the dark variety.
black marble vs granite
Granite is a different hard stone, usually speckled rather than smooth and dark; not a synonym.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'black marble' correctly as a material?
Choose one answer.
'Black marble' as a material is uncountable, so 'carved from black marble' fits. Option 2 wrongly treats the material as countable, option 3 uses a plural verb with an uncountable noun, and option 4 invents a verb form that does not exist.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “black marble”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.