benighted
Americanadjective
-
intellectually or morally ignorant; unenlightened.
benighted ages of barbarism and superstition.
- Synonyms:
- uncultivated, crude, primitive, backward
-
overtaken by darkness or night.
adjective
-
lacking cultural, moral, or intellectual enlightenment; ignorant
-
archaic overtaken by night
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of benighted
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.
Vocabulary lists containing benighted
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Once and Future King
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"On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s more like an existential dilemma, both for our bewildered and benighted country and for the world.
From Salon ● Jan. 3, 2026
A young woman from an island community on the brink of extinction sets out on an odyssey across the vastness of the Pacific, hoping to save the people of her benighted home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
As Winkler repeatedly shows, they — and Oxfordians in particular — tend to see themselves as evangelicals on a mission, tirelessly spreading their persecuted gospel to benighted unbelievers.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2023
In February 2018, she wrote an article for the Washington Post, calling Bostic's sentence "benighted and unjust".
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2023
Nelson, as usual, was the one who finally took pity upon our benighted stupidity and told us what was up: kukwela.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
