black-and-white
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black-and-white
Consisting only of the colors black and white and their shades of gray, without any other colors.
Ich liebe alte schwarzweiß-Fotografien aus den 50er Jahren.
I love old black-and-white photographs from the 1950s.
black-and-white
In an overly simplified way that only recognizes extremes (good/bad, right/wrong) and allows no shades of gray or complexity.
Die Realität ist selten so schwarzweiß, wie du sie darstellst.
Reality is rarely as black-and-white as you make it out to be.
The adjective is formed directly from the colors 'schwarz' (black) and 'weiß' (white). In official spelling, it is written with a hyphen ('schwarz-weiß'), but writing it as one word is also very common.
Der alte Film war noch schwarz-weiß.
The old film was still black-and-white.
When 'schwarzweiß' (black-and-white) describes an action (e.g. with verbs like 'denken' (to think) or 'sehen' (to see)), it functions like an adverb and is not declined.
Man sollte die Welt nicht immer nur schwarzweiß sehen.
You shouldn't always see the world only in black and white.
In its literal meaning, the adjective is often used for visual media. Typical nouns are 'ein schwarzweißer Film' (a black-and-white film), 'ein schwarzweißes Foto' (a black-and-white photo), or 'ein schwarzweißer Fernseher' (a black-and-white television).
Im Kunstunterricht sollten wir eine schwarzweiße Zeichnung anfertigen.
In art class, we were supposed to make a black-and-white drawing.
You can recognize the figurative meaning from the context. It is almost always used in discussions about opinions, judgments, or complex situations, often together with verbs like 'denken' (to think) or 'malen' (to paint/portray).
Seine Argumentation ist mir zu schwarzweiß, die Realität ist komplizierter.
His argument is too black-and-white for me; reality is more complicated.
binary
Binär neutrally describes a system with exactly two mutually exclusive possibilities. Schwarzweiß, on the other hand, describes a way of thinking that reduces everything to two extremes and overlooks important shades of meaning. Use binär for an objective two-way division; use schwarzweiß to criticize excessive oversimplification.
Die Einteilung aller Vorschläge in gut oder schlecht ist zu schwarzweiß.
Classifying all the suggestions as either good or bad is too black-and-white.
Die Abstimmung ist binär, weil man nur mit Ja oder Nein antworten kann.
The vote is binary because you can answer only yes or no.
