as in benighted
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Recent Examples of unenlightened
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
And the culprit doesn’t seem to be a small number of unenlightened appraisers.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 8 July 2024
Some are downright funky in their retro prejudices, others more quaintly unenlightened.
—Lauren Bravo, refinery29.com, 3 Jan. 2024
Most gratifying in Newnham’s investigation is how Hite reclaimed her own positive sense of self in exile through some key female friendships: a love goddess finding refuge with like-minded souls after a bruising battle with unenlightened, resentful mortals.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2023
See All Example Sentences for unenlightened
M. R. O’Connor, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
And the culprit doesn’t seem to be a small number of unenlightened appraisers.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 8 July 2024
Some are downright funky in their retro prejudices, others more quaintly unenlightened.
—Lauren Bravo, refinery29.com, 3 Jan. 2024
Most gratifying in Newnham’s investigation is how Hite reclaimed her own positive sense of self in exile through some key female friendships: a love goddess finding refuge with like-minded souls after a bruising battle with unenlightened, resentful mortals.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2023
See All Example Sentences for unenlightened
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unenlightened
Adjective
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With hundreds of years of patient work behind it, with some educational institutions willing to protect their scientists, and with researchers hard at work in less-benighted nations, the human desire to know and to understand will continue to produce results.—
Bill McKibben,
New Yorker,
3 Sep. 2025
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Like the original Outlander, Blood of My Blood is believably frank about the possibility of assault in the benighted past.—
Graham Hillard,
The Washington Examiner,
22 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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That’s just idiotic foreign policy.—
Jamie McIntyre,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
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The Chiefs open with the J’s Friday night in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which is patently idiotic, but at least the loser can blame it on the bossa nova.—
Nick Canepa,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent.—
Daniel Burke,
NPR,
9 May 2025
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The show and its participants were even parodied on Saturday Night Live in January, with comedian Ego Nwodim playing Amuli, and other cast members mocking people’s poor conversation skills and unintelligent dating decisions.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Even women of color with a college education have a higher chance of dying in childbirth than an uneducated white woman, and that is shocking.—
Luisa Zargani,
Footwear News,
30 Aug. 2025
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These consequences will not be limited to the poor, the uneducated or minority groups.—
Arthur L. Kellermann,
Forbes.com,
28 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Any suggestion that this is some kind of victory for Combs is ignorant.—
KiMi Robinson,
USA Today,
27 Aug. 2025
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In this case, the problem is ethics in the medical profession, as young doctor Andrew Manson (Robert Donat) moves from idealism to disillusionment and back again when faced with ignorant patients who are skeptical of his conclusions, economic hardship, and crooked colleagues.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
25 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The reigning Super Bowl champs better hope that’s the dumbest thing that one of their players does this season.—
Parker Gabriel,
Denver Post,
6 Sep. 2025
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Sometimes, actors play a slightly dumber iteration of themselves; think James Van Der Beek in Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 and Liam Neeson in Life’s Too Short (a performance that got Neeson cast in this year’s The Naked Gun).—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unenlightened.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unenlightened. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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