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

Recent Examples on the Web

The harder question is one the West has been quietly answering the same way for three hundred years, and the answer sits at the heart of the Enlightenment. — Stephen Messer, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026

In it, a twelve-year-old boy, Cosimo, rebels against his aristocratic family, and the Enlightenment’s false divide between nature and culture, by climbing a holm oak and spending his life in the canopy. — Eric Klinenberg, New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2026

But Musical Bodies is not limited to this characteristically Western dichotomy and the Enlightenment discourse that fostered it. — Jonathon Keats, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026

But, as a figure of the Enlightenment and thus a believer in reason and science, the former president discounted the miracles associated with Jesus — including his virgin birth and supposed resurrection. — Letters To The Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 28 June 2026