English Meaning & Definitions
Demanding money or compliance from someone by threatening to reveal damaging information about them.
- “He blackmails his former business partners to fund his lavish lifestyle.”
- “She blackmails him with photographs from the company party.”
The plural form of blackmail: the crime or practice of forcing someone to pay money or do something by threatening to reveal embarrassing or damaging secrets.
- “The politician fell victim to a series of sophisticated blackmails.”
- “They used various blackmails to secure the contract.”
Comprehensive Thesaurus Breakdown
Compare formal, informal, literary synonyms and register nuances for “blackmails”.
Derived from 'black' (originally used in the sense of 'rent paid in kind or labor rather than silver') and 'mail' (from Old Norse 'mál', meaning 'agreement' or 'speech', later 'tribute' or 'rent'). Historically, 'black mail' referred to protection money paid to border outlaws in northern England and Scotland in exchange for not being plundered.
Think of someone sending 'black mail' (threatening letters) to force another person into giving them money or secrets.
Frequently Asked Questions About “blackmails”
1. What is the meaning of “blackmails” in English?
In English, blackmails (verb) is defined as: “Demanding money or compliance from someone by threatening to reveal damaging information about them.”.
2. How do you use “blackmails” in a sentence?
“He blackmails his former business partners to fund his lavish lifestyle.”
3. What are English synonyms of “blackmails”?
4. What is the etymology and word origin of “blackmails”?
Derived from 'black' (originally used in the sense of 'rent paid in kind or labor rather than silver') and 'mail' (from Old Norse 'mál', meaning 'agreement' or 'speech', later 'tribute' or 'rent'). Historically, 'black mail' referred to protection money paid to border outlaws in northern England and Scotland in exchange for not being plundered.
🇬🇧More English Words to English
View all English words →A measurement of time indicating an instantaneous occurrence or a state where no time has elapsed.
The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.
A specific duration of time equal to one hour and forty-six minutes and twelve seconds.
The cardinal number equal to one thousand million (1,000,000,000), expressed in scientific notation as 10^9.