enlighten
to give intellectual or spiritual light to; instruct; impart knowledge to: We hope the results of our research will enlighten our colleagues.
Archaic. to shed light upon.
Origin of enlighten
1Other words for enlighten
Opposites for enlighten
Other words from enlighten
- en·light·ened·ly, adverb
- en·light·ened·ness, noun
- en·light·en·er, noun
- non·en·light·ened, adjective
- pre·en·light·en, verb (used with object)
- pre·en·light·en·er, noun
- re·en·light·en, verb (used with object)
- un·en·light·ened, adjective
- well-en·light·ened, adjective
Words Nearby enlighten
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use enlighten in a sentence
This guide is meant to enlighten your search for the best night-vision goggles.
Best night-vision goggles: How to see the galaxy when the Sun goes down | Irena Collaku | August 15, 2021 | Popular-ScienceChastened by the realities laid bare by the pandemic, a lot of companies are embracing fresh-start affirmations and promising newly enlightened, gentler, more equitable workplaces.
Gradually, Momo grows enlightened to the oppression of androids, connecting the dots between a surgery she had as a child and the disappearance of her childhood best friend.
Politics and the pandemic have changed how we imagine cities | Joanne McNeil | April 28, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewIf you care even a little bit about New York City — and possibly even if you don’t — this book will enlighten and quite possibly thrill you.
How Does New York City Keep Reinventing Itself? (Bonus) | Kurt Andersen | March 21, 2021 | FreakonomicsThe shame and sorrow these young women suffer in the 1890s is not so different from what women trying to get pregnant — or end a pregnancy — endure in our own supposedly enlightened era.
In Anna North’s riveting ‘Outlawed,’ there’s nothing more dangerous than a childless woman | Ron Charles | January 7, 2021 | Washington Post
Maybe some of you Brits who followed me over from the dear old Graun could enlighten.
Creator Rod Serling was compelled by the need “not to just entertain but to enlighten.”
How a War-Weary Vet Created ‘The Twilight Zone’ | Rich Goldstein | November 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWith Sinclair as our non-judgmental guide, we see that these revelations are not meant to shock us but, perhaps, enlighten us.
‘High Maintenance,’ Like a Good High, Is Funny and Sometimes Unsettling | Caitlin Dickson | November 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThey're supposed to give audiences hope and enlighten them while promoting positive emotions.
Inside ‘Leviathan’: Russian Filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Award-Winning Anti-Putin Cannes Film | Richard Porton | May 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTCan someone please enlighten me: is Girls supposed to be serious?
We certainly do intend to deal fairly with Liberia, and give the reader every information that may tend to enlighten them.
Jack shivered as he recalled the Rev. Charles Mason's picture of that home, but he would not enlighten her.
The Cromptons | Mary J. HolmesJuana, too late aware of our laws and habits and administrative customs, did not enlighten her husband soon enough.
Juana | Honore de BalzacSensible and peaceable people enlighten themselves; their light spreads itself gradually, and in time reaches the people.
Superstition In All Ages (1732) | Jean MeslierMan is so little enlightened to-day only because we had the precaution or the good fortune to enlighten him little by little.
Superstition In All Ages (1732) | Jean Meslier
British Dictionary definitions for enlighten
/ (ɪnˈlaɪtən) /
to give information or understanding to; instruct; edify
to free from ignorance, prejudice, or superstition
to give spiritual or religious revelation to
poetic to shed light on
Derived forms of enlighten
- enlightener, noun
- enlightening, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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