black and white

1. 1.

   not having or not capable of producing colors

   “black-and-white film”

   “a black-and-white TV”

   “the movie was in black and white”

   Synonymsblack-and-white

   photography

Questions about black and white

What does black and white mean?

black and white means "communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten)". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for black and white?

Close synonyms include written communication, written language, monochrome, black-and-white. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is black and white a common word?

black and white is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.