the Enlightenment
noun
: a movement of the 18th century that stressed the belief that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion
Examples of the Enlightenment in a Sentence
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He was taught by the radical abolitionist Gilbert Wakefield, and his father was a friend and admirer of the Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose ideas helped inspire the French Revolution.
—
Roy Scranton, The Conversation, 22 Aug. 2025
Faith in the Enlightenment and European progress was destroyed.
—Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2025
Under her leadership, the country experienced a cultural and scientific renaissance inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment.
—Lorenzino Estrada, AZCentral.com, 9 July 2025
While not quite Mary Shelly, Percy Shelly, Lord Bryon and the poet born George Gordon’s physician John Polidori in 1816 in a villa near Lake Geneva inventing Frankenstein and The Vampyre on the heels of the Enlightenment, Mountainhead is pretty scary.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 23 May 2025
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Roy Scranton, The Conversation, 22 Aug. 2025
Faith in the Enlightenment and European progress was destroyed.
—Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2025
Under her leadership, the country experienced a cultural and scientific renaissance inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment.
—Lorenzino Estrada, AZCentral.com, 9 July 2025
While not quite Mary Shelly, Percy Shelly, Lord Bryon and the poet born George Gordon’s physician John Polidori in 1816 in a villa near Lake Geneva inventing Frankenstein and The Vampyre on the heels of the Enlightenment, Mountainhead is pretty scary.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 23 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for the Enlightenment
Cite this Entry
“The Enlightenment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20Enlightenment. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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