as in benighted
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Recent Examples of unenlightened
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
By today’s standards, looking for a single ideal of beauty feels antiquated and unenlightened.
—Rhonda Garelick, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2023
Both novels engage with the ways that ostensibly academic conversations, like the riverside chats that stud Brideshead or the Greek classes with Julian in The Secret History, can hold erotic subtexts whose meaning might elude the unenlightened eavesdropper.
—Jo Livingstone, The New Republic, 22 Oct. 2021
Today, many scholars dismiss the imperialist, racist logics propounded by the founders of modern international relations theory as merely reflecting the prejudices of an unenlightened era: sins not egregious enough to diminish the value of the sinners’ good works.
—Zachariah Mampilly, Foreign Affairs, 6 Sep. 2022
See All Example Sentences for unenlightened
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2023
By today’s standards, looking for a single ideal of beauty feels antiquated and unenlightened.
—Rhonda Garelick, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2023
Both novels engage with the ways that ostensibly academic conversations, like the riverside chats that stud Brideshead or the Greek classes with Julian in The Secret History, can hold erotic subtexts whose meaning might elude the unenlightened eavesdropper.
—Jo Livingstone, The New Republic, 22 Oct. 2021
Today, many scholars dismiss the imperialist, racist logics propounded by the founders of modern international relations theory as merely reflecting the prejudices of an unenlightened era: sins not egregious enough to diminish the value of the sinners’ good works.
—Zachariah Mampilly, Foreign Affairs, 6 Sep. 2022
See All Example Sentences for unenlightened
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unenlightened
Adjective
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Antony and Cleopatra’s benighted love story plays out against the surge of Roman power, and Caesar, sung with biting clarity by Paul Appleby, comes off as a modern Duce.—
Justin Davidson,
Vulture,
13 May 2025
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In that benighted era, smart and beautiful women like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Judy Holliday were perennially cast in jiggle roles: empty headed, screen-filling eye candy.—
Guy Trebay,
New York Times,
24 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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And jingoism, idiotic, is not patriotism.—
Jay Nordlinger,
National Review,
7 Mar. 2025
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But, here, the characters suffer from the horror film syndrome of making one idiotic decision after another because that’s what the film requires to send the action in its intended direction.—
Scott Phillips,
Forbes,
15 Jan. 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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Still, despite the glut of legal graduates, his shift in focus was an unusual move for an ambitious young man in a country where farming is seen as a job for old, uneducated or poor people.—
Carmen Abd Ali,
New York Times,
20 Apr. 2025
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The Catholic Church openly collaborated with the Ustaše, whose support came largely from young men with rural, blue-collar, uneducated backgrounds.—
Larry Luxner,
Sun Sentinel,
5 May 2025
Adjective
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The former Fox host Tucker Carlson, who opposed such an operation, sparred with two boosters: the current Fox host Mark Levin, and the Republican senator Ted Cruz, whom Carlson revealed to be ignorant of basic facts about Iran in a clip that went viral.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
27 June 2025
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Maybe LLMs get us 80% of the way there without any oversight, but skipping the context and being completely ignorant of what the machine is doing is typically not a good idea, partly for the reasons that the panelists laid out.—
John Werner,
Forbes.com,
19 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unenlightened.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unenlightened. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
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