What is Greek for black?

Greek for black is melas or mavros in modern Greek, with ancient Greek using melas. In ancient Greek, melas, melanos in genitive, means black, dark, or murky, and is root for many English scientific words like melanin which is pigment causing hair color and when lost leads to grey or gray hair, melanocyte cells that produce melanin, melanoma meaning black tumor, and melancholy meaning black bile from melas and chole bile. In modern Greek, common word for black is mavros, meaning black, while melas is more literary or scientific. For example, black color in modern Greek is mavro, as in mavro aftokinito meaning black car. Ancient Greek also had kelainos meaning dark or black. In Byzantine Greek, mavros became common. So Greek for black has two forms, ancient melas used in scientific terminology, and modern mavros used in everyday speech. If you want to say black in Greek, you would say mavro for neuter, mavros for masculine, mavri for feminine. For example, black dress is mavro forema. In Greek mythology, melas was used for dark. The root melano is widely used in English words related to black pigmentation, showing influence of Greek. So Greek for black is melas in ancient and scientific context, mavros in modern everyday Greek.