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Showing results for benighted. Search instead for beknighted.
Synonyms

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.

benighted British  
/ bɪˈnaɪtɪd /

adjective

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

  2. archaic overtaken by night

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • benightedly adverb
  • benightedness noun

Etymology

Origin of benighted

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.