dark ages
Time of decline
A dark ages is any period perceived as characterized by decline, stagnation, or loss of knowledge.
The phrase draws on the metaphor of darkness as ignorance: the dark ages before the internet, a dark ages for civil rights.
Often used hyperbolically to describe times when progress seemed absent or reversed. (Capitalized Dark Ages is the historical period.)
- darknessTotal absence of light
- ignoranceAbsence of knowledge
- stagnationAbsence of flow or progress
- torchesPortable fire on poles
- declineDecrease or refuse
lost knowledge · unenlightened · dungeons · collapse · superstition · chaos · illiteracy · depopulation · regression · obscure · barbarians · bubonic plague · ruins · undocumented · decay · fall · fall of Rome · famine
- Medieval erasearly medieval, late medieval, feudal era, Gothic period, Hundred Years War
- historyancient civilizations, past events, historian, epochs, era
- Middle Agesmedieval period, castles, knights, feudal system, feudalism
- sports historyOlympic history, Olympic records, Olympics, Olympic Games, Olympic training
- hardshipshardship, adversity, struggle, misfortune, difficulties
- historical erasStone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Renaissance, Victorian era
dark agesgolden age
Period of peak prosperity
Renaissance · classical antiquity · golden era · belle époque · silver age
dark agesEnlightenment
Era prioritizing reason over dogma
Age of Enlightenment · age of reason · enlightenment · scientific revolution · age of discovery
dark agesgolden age
Period of peak prosperity
modern era · space age · atomic age · utopia · modernity