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ENLIGHTENED
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
People who have been introduced to the mysteries of some field or activity
Example:
it is very familiar to the initiate
Synonyms:
enlightened; initiate
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("enlightened" is a kind of...):
people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)
Derivation:
enlightened (characterized by full comprehension of the problem involved)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having knowledge and spiritual insight
Classified under:
Similar:
edified (instructed and encouraged in moral, intellectual, and spiritual improvement)
Also:
educated (possessing an education (especially having more than average knowledge))
informed (having much knowledge or education)
Antonym:
unenlightened (not enlightened; ignorant)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by full comprehension of the problem involved
Example:
an enlightened electorate
Synonyms:
educated; enlightened
Classified under:
Similar:
informed (having much knowledge or education)
Derivation:
enlightened (people who have been introduced to the mysteries of some field or activity)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb enlighten
Context examples:
"Especially to gentlemen," added May, with a look which enlightened Amy as to one cause of her sudden fall from favor.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Here the gentlemen interposed with earnest petitions to be further enlightened on these two last-named points; but they got only blushes, ejaculations, tremors, and titters, in return for their importunity.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was all known at the Parsonage, where he loved to talk over the future with both his sisters, and it would be rather gratifying to him to have enlightened witnesses of the progress of his success.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path, and I again went out in search of berries.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Jo behaved herself with exemplary propriety, and when Amy was happily surrounded by her guard of honor, Jo circulated about the Hall, picking up various bits of gossip, which enlightened her upon the subject of the Chester change of base.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
When he had done, instead of feeling better, calmer, more enlightened by his discourse, I experienced an inexpressible sadness; for it seemed to me—I know not whether equally so to others—that the eloquence to which I had been listening had sprung from a depth where lay turbid dregs of disappointment—where moved troubling impulses of insatiate yearnings and disquieting aspirations.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Thursday was the day of the ball; and on Wednesday morning Fanny, still unable to satisfy herself as to what she ought to wear, determined to seek the counsel of the more enlightened, and apply to Mrs. Grant and her sister, whose acknowledged taste would certainly bear her blameless; and as Edmund and William were gone to Northampton, and she had reason to think Mr. Crawford likewise out, she walked down to the Parsonage without much fear of wanting an opportunity for private discussion; and the privacy of such a discussion was a most important part of it to Fanny, being more than half-ashamed of her own solicitude.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
