Definition of "Kali"

Kālī is Śiva's "other" wife, as it were, provoking him and encouraging him in his mad, antisocial, often disruptive habits. It is never Kālī who tames Śiva but Śiva who must becalm Kālī.

1986, David R. Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition, published 1988, page 122

To many Hindu Bengalis, Kālī is the most important divinity. Identified with the great Goddess, Devi Bhagavati, she subsumes all other goddesses.

2000, Sanjukta Gupta, “27: The Worship of Kālī According to the Toḑala Tantra”, in David Gordon White, editor, Tantra in Practice, published 2001, page 463

A popular form of Kali worshiped in Calcutta is Adya Shakti Kali, or Kali as primordial power. Adya Shakti Kali is also present in some tantras, especially the Mahanirvana Tantra. Because she devours Kala or Time, she is Kali, the original form of all things, and because she is the origin and devourer of all things, she is called Adya Kali.

2011, June McDaniel, “2: Kali: Goddess of Life, Death, and Transcendence”, in Patricia Monaghan, editor, Goddesses in World Culture, volume 1, page 26