as in benighted
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of unenlightened
Instead of transitioning these communities into new industries or providing them with the tools to adapt, our legislators have chosen to obscure coal and its workers, treating them as relics of a bygone, unenlightened and even primitive era.
—
Daniel A.c. McBride, Baltimore Sun, 1 June 2025
Dirty work is often assumed to be unenlightened work, but wildland firefighters have a unique empirical understanding of natural forces.
—M. R. O’Connor, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
Some are downright funky in their retro prejudices, others more quaintly unenlightened.
—Lauren Bravo, refinery29.com, 3 Jan. 2024
Wilson, therefore, was not introducing the ideas of world order and human rights to a collection of previously anarchic states and unenlightened polities.
—Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, 8 Dec. 2020
See All Example Sentences for unenlightened
Daniel A.c. McBride, Baltimore Sun, 1 June 2025
Dirty work is often assumed to be unenlightened work, but wildland firefighters have a unique empirical understanding of natural forces.
—M. R. O’Connor, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
Some are downright funky in their retro prejudices, others more quaintly unenlightened.
—Lauren Bravo, refinery29.com, 3 Jan. 2024
Wilson, therefore, was not introducing the ideas of world order and human rights to a collection of previously anarchic states and unenlightened polities.
—Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, 8 Dec. 2020
See All Example Sentences for unenlightened
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unenlightened
Adjective
-
But this time there would be no panel from the National Endowment of the Arts sifting through the applications, no oversight from cultural officials and benighted curators—the usual process.—
Nate Freeman,
Vanity Fair,
8 May 2026
-
He’s introduced it to diners in formerly benighted, hash-less regions, including Texas.—
Robert F. Moss,
Southern Living,
16 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
That’s been an idiotic trope for too long — that participating in the business side of it taints you.—
Marc Weingarten,
Los Angeles Times,
8 June 2026
-
Red-Bodied Dog Tick Has your idiotic dog wandered onto a bucolic patch of grass that hasn’t been freshly treated with toxins?—
Jay Ruttenberg,
New Yorker,
8 June 2026
Adjective
-
Protect your team from the worst of what politically unintelligent leadership produces.—
Vibhas Ratanjee,
Forbes.com,
31 Mar. 2026
-
More and more people are avoiding dating or befriending those with opposing political views, and growing numbers describe those on the other side as closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent.—
Justin Callais,
Twin Cities,
5 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Stolen bases, once treated as a reckless relic of the uneducated past, are at levels not seen since the freewheeling 1980s.—
Chad Jennings,
New York Times,
21 May 2026
-
The animals help Tim, who proves uneducated in the methods of deduction, investigate a series of local suspects portrayed by Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, Emma Thompson, Kobna Holbrook-Smith, Nicholas Galitzine, Tosin Cole and Conleth Hill, among others.—
Tommy McArdle,
PEOPLE,
7 May 2026
Adjective
-
And using both words does not reveal that a person is ignorant but rather cosmopolitan.—
Kirk Bowman,
The Conversation,
4 June 2026
-
Trump cut education aid, people got ignorant.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
22 May 2026
Adjective
-
Garrincha was characterised as childish and moronic in psychological tests commissioned by the Brazilian federation before that tournament in Sweden and was then left out of their first two games.—
Jack Lang,
New York Times,
28 May 2026
-
His moronic tariffs continue to blow up in his face, spiking inflation and getting zero concessions from China.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
25 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
But the truly dangerous frontier is the American high school, where girls are willing to play dumb and give up their secrets, friends, privacy and virginity to fit in and find love.—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
4 June 2026
-
There were those dumb America's Care Packages that bestowed special powers to popular players to give them unfair advantages.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
4 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Unenlightened.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unenlightened. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
