Other forms: blanks
Blank means with nothing written or recorded on it yet. A blank page, a blank form, leave it blank.
It describes emptiness that is waiting to be filled, which is why a blank page is different from a missing one. Of a face or an expression it means showing nothing: a blank look, he went blank. My mind went blank means you suddenly could not remember. A blank is also the empty space itself — fill in the blanks — and a cartridge with no bullet: firing blanks. Note point blank, meaning direct and very close.
1adjectiveblankWith nothing written or recorded on it.
“The last three pages of the book are blank.”
2adjectiveshowingShowing no expression or understanding.
“She gave him a blank look and carried on.”
3nounemptyAn empty space to be filled in.
“Fill in the blanks and sign at the bottom.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
blank is an empty state.
Also accepted in games: empty
Frankish blank meant white or shining, the same root as English bleach and the French blanc. A blank page is a white page, and every other sense comes from that whiteness.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰleyǵ- — to shine
Proto-Germanic
*blankaz — white, bright, blinding
Frankish
*blank — gleaming, white, blinding
Old French
blanc
Middle English
blank
English, today
blank
From Middle English blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Anglo-Norman - blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Old French blanc, feminine blanche, from Frankish blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). Akin to Old High German blanch (“shining, bright, white”) (German blank), Old English blanc (“white, grey”), blanca (“white steed”), Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. a doublet of blanc.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA