"man in black" meaning in English

See man in black in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: men in black [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|men in black}} man in black (plural men in black)
  1. (sports, informal) The referee. Tags: informal Categories (topical): Sports, People
    Sense id: en-man_in_black-en-noun-tIbEf-s2 Disambiguation of People: 59 41 Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports
  2. (ufology) A covert government operative, wearing a black suit and black aviator sunglasses, believed by conspiracy theorists to cover up UFO incidents. Categories (topical): Ufology, Conspiracy theories, Ufology
    Sense id: en-man_in_black-en-noun-A5cDBNwD Disambiguation of Conspiracy theories: 20 80 Disambiguation of Ufology: 10 90 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 31 69 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 25 75 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 33 67 Topics: human-sciences, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, sciences, ufology

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for man in black meaning in English (5.5kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "men in black",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "men in black"
      },
      "expansion": "man in black (plural men in black)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sports",
          "orig": "en:Sports",
          "parents": [
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "59 41",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The referee."
      ],
      "id": "en-man_in_black-en-noun-tIbEf-s2",
      "links": [
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ],
        [
          "referee",
          "referee"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(sports, informal) The referee."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ufology",
          "orig": "en:Ufology",
          "parents": [
            "Anti-gravity",
            "Celestial inhabitants",
            "Forteana",
            "Fictional abilities",
            "Gravity",
            "Science fiction",
            "Space access",
            "Demonyms",
            "Fictional characters",
            "Pseudoscience",
            "Fiction",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Acceleration",
            "Astrophysics",
            "Mechanics",
            "Astronautics",
            "Names",
            "People",
            "Sciences",
            "Artistic works",
            "Genres",
            "Physics",
            "Astronomy",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Space",
            "All topics",
            "Proper nouns",
            "Terms by semantic function",
            "Human",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Nature",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nouns",
            "Culture",
            "Lemmas",
            "Society"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "31 69",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 75",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 80",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Conspiracy theories",
          "orig": "en:Conspiracy theories",
          "parents": [
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 90",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ufology",
          "orig": "en:Ufology",
          "parents": [
            "Anti-gravity",
            "Celestial inhabitants",
            "Forteana",
            "Fictional abilities",
            "Gravity",
            "Science fiction",
            "Space access",
            "Demonyms",
            "Fictional characters",
            "Pseudoscience",
            "Fiction",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Acceleration",
            "Astrophysics",
            "Mechanics",
            "Astronautics",
            "Names",
            "People",
            "Sciences",
            "Artistic works",
            "Genres",
            "Physics",
            "Astronomy",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Space",
            "All topics",
            "Proper nouns",
            "Terms by semantic function",
            "Human",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Nature",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nouns",
            "Culture",
            "Lemmas",
            "Society"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: black helicopter"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1958, The Australian Saucer Record, volume 4, number 4, page 1",
          "text": "Ever since the cessation of activity by Albert Bender in 1954, and followed closely by a few others, whose disappear[a]nce though less spectacular, from this field of work, caused a stir among the then active workers; the words he used in reference to his case \"that he had been visited by three men in black, who demanded that he cease his investigations\" left many to conjecture as to who they were, and what was their reason and who they represented.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991 March 26, John A. Keel, “Who are the UFO silencers?”, in Weekly World News, volume 12, number 25, page 8",
          "text": "Often they arrive at the scene of a UFO landing before those involves have had a chance to tell their story to the authorities, indicating that these Men-in-Black can read – as well as CONTROL – minds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, James L. Thompson, Alien encounters: the deception menace, Cedar Fort, page 52",
          "text": "In many UFO sightings in which evidence of the sighting is claimed to exist, government \"men in black\" are reported to appear at the witnesses' doors demanding the evidence and threatening witnesses in the event they divulge any information regarding their sighting.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, John A. Saliba, “UFO Contactee Phenomena from a Sociopsychological Perspective: A Review”, in The Gods have landed: new religions from other worlds, SUNY Press, page 218",
          "text": "Stories of “men-in-black,” who confront those who have witnessed a UFO with the intention of persuading them to keep their knowledge of space creatures a secret, are also amenable to folkloristic analysis.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A covert government operative, wearing a black suit and black aviator sunglasses, believed by conspiracy theorists to cover up UFO incidents."
      ],
      "id": "en-man_in_black-en-noun-A5cDBNwD",
      "links": [
        [
          "ufology",
          "ufology"
        ],
        [
          "covert",
          "covert"
        ],
        [
          "government",
          "government"
        ],
        [
          "operative",
          "operative"
        ],
        [
          "suit",
          "suit"
        ],
        [
          "aviator sunglasses",
          "aviator sunglasses"
        ],
        [
          "conspiracy theorist",
          "conspiracy theorist"
        ],
        [
          "cover up",
          "cover up"
        ],
        [
          "UFO",
          "UFO"
        ],
        [
          "incident",
          "incident"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ufology) A covert government operative, wearing a black suit and black aviator sunglasses, believed by conspiracy theorists to cover up UFO incidents."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "mysticism",
        "mythology",
        "philosophy",
        "sciences",
        "ufology"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "en:man in black"
  ],
  "word": "man in black"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "en:Conspiracy theories",
    "en:People",
    "en:Ufology"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "men in black",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "men in black"
      },
      "expansion": "man in black (plural men in black)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "en:Sports"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The referee."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ],
        [
          "referee",
          "referee"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(sports, informal) The referee."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Ufology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: black helicopter"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1958, The Australian Saucer Record, volume 4, number 4, page 1",
          "text": "Ever since the cessation of activity by Albert Bender in 1954, and followed closely by a few others, whose disappear[a]nce though less spectacular, from this field of work, caused a stir among the then active workers; the words he used in reference to his case \"that he had been visited by three men in black, who demanded that he cease his investigations\" left many to conjecture as to who they were, and what was their reason and who they represented.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991 March 26, John A. Keel, “Who are the UFO silencers?”, in Weekly World News, volume 12, number 25, page 8",
          "text": "Often they arrive at the scene of a UFO landing before those involves have had a chance to tell their story to the authorities, indicating that these Men-in-Black can read – as well as CONTROL – minds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, James L. Thompson, Alien encounters: the deception menace, Cedar Fort, page 52",
          "text": "In many UFO sightings in which evidence of the sighting is claimed to exist, government \"men in black\" are reported to appear at the witnesses' doors demanding the evidence and threatening witnesses in the event they divulge any information regarding their sighting.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, John A. Saliba, “UFO Contactee Phenomena from a Sociopsychological Perspective: A Review”, in The Gods have landed: new religions from other worlds, SUNY Press, page 218",
          "text": "Stories of “men-in-black,” who confront those who have witnessed a UFO with the intention of persuading them to keep their knowledge of space creatures a secret, are also amenable to folkloristic analysis.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A covert government operative, wearing a black suit and black aviator sunglasses, believed by conspiracy theorists to cover up UFO incidents."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ufology",
          "ufology"
        ],
        [
          "covert",
          "covert"
        ],
        [
          "government",
          "government"
        ],
        [
          "operative",
          "operative"
        ],
        [
          "suit",
          "suit"
        ],
        [
          "aviator sunglasses",
          "aviator sunglasses"
        ],
        [
          "conspiracy theorist",
          "conspiracy theorist"
        ],
        [
          "cover up",
          "cover up"
        ],
        [
          "UFO",
          "UFO"
        ],
        [
          "incident",
          "incident"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ufology) A covert government operative, wearing a black suit and black aviator sunglasses, believed by conspiracy theorists to cover up UFO incidents."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "mysticism",
        "mythology",
        "philosophy",
        "sciences",
        "ufology"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "en:man in black"
  ],
  "word": "man in black"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.