English

a black-and-white photo.

Adjective

black-and-white ‎(not comparable)

1. Of art, a photograph or photography, using shades of grey/gray rather than colour/color.
2. Of a television or monitor, displaying images in shades of grey/gray rather than colour/color.
3. (figuratively) Classifying people, objects or concepts as two polar opposites, especially "right" and "wrong"; dichotomous and inflexible.
   • 1999, Cynthia Hendershot, Paranoia, the Bomb, and 1950s Science Fiction Films, Popular Press (ISBN 9780879727994), page 28

     The pseudo-community of enemies in The Day the Earth Stood Still consists of politicians, the military, and businessmen, whereas the pseudo-community of friends, the element that complements the enemies and reinforces the black-and-white morality of paranoia (Cameron, "Revisited" 56), is composed of scientists, women, and children.

   • 2008, Linus Torvalds, Re: [stable] Linux 2.6.25.10, LKML; quoted in: Bezpieczeństwo, Jacek Popławski, pl.comp.os.advocacy, Usenet

     Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't stand.

   • 2011, Sandra Orchard, Deep Cover, Harlequin (ISBN 9781459212886), page 144

     “It's complicated. Not everything is black-and-white, Ginny. Sometimes, it's just gray.” The disillusionment in Ginny's eyes hurt bone-deep. She was a black-and-white kind of person. Actions were either right or wrong. No room for in-betweens.

   • 2011, Aileen Zeitz Collucci, Big Picture Thinking: Using Central Coherence Theory to Support Social Skills : a Book for Students, AAPC Publishing (ISBN 9781934575864), page 82

     You could say that inflexible thinking is black-and-white thinking and flexible thinking is rainbow thinking. Black-and-white thinkers have difficulty being flexible in their mind and seeing different possibilities and perspectives.

4. Alternative form of black and white (easily divided into diametrically opposing camps)

Synonyms

• (art/photograph/photography): monochrome (compare grayscale, greyscale)

Antonyms

• (art/photograph/photography): colour/color
• (television/monitor): colour/color

Translations

See also

• in black and white