benighted

American  

[bih-nahy-tid] / bɪˈnaɪ tɪd /

adjective

1. intellectually or morally ignorant; unenlightened.

   benighted ages of barbarism and superstition.

   Synonyms:

   uncultivated, crude, primitive, backward

2. overtaken by darkness or night.

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benighted British  

/ bɪˈnaɪtɪd /

adjective

1. lacking cultural, moral, or intellectual enlightenment; ignorant

2. archaic overtaken by night

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Other Word Forms

• benightedly
  adverb
• benightedness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of benighted

First recorded in 1565–75; be- + night + -ed ²

Explanation

Being called benighted is much like being called naive. It means lacking in knowledge or understanding—the kind you might have if you were older or more sophisticated. Although it sounds a lot like "being knighted", benighted has nothing to do with knights and, in fact, includes the word "night" (as in the opposite of day) and not "knight" (as in "of the Round Table"). One way to remember what benighted means is to think of a person "being nighted" or, put into the dark. A benighted person is in the dark about things: they don't know because they can't see. The Dark Ages are thought to have been a benighted time, full of primitive ideas.

Example Sentences

Benighted on their return, it is only Patsy's understanding with the mountain outlaws that gets them home alive.

From Time Magazine Archive

Brideshead Benighted offers, instead, roughly a decade's worth of the author's columns for the Spectator, a British weekly magazine.

From Time Magazine Archive

Benighted, contentious, passionate, ignorant souls, countryfolk of a poor land, their generosity gave a noble ending to that hard journey.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Benighted tramps in city lock-ups, talking to bored police reporters, told the story, and it began to appear in little filler paragraphs here and there in newspapers.

From The Innocents A Story for Lovers by Lewis, Sinclair

Benighted Before long the situation ceased to be amusing, as we found that we had managed to get wet through in the gully, and that the slowly falling temperature was exceedingly unpleasant.

From Above the Snow Line by Dent, Clinton Thomas