benighted

[bih-nahy-tid]

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

/ bɪˈnaɪtɪd /

adjective

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

2. archaic,  overtaken by night

Other Word Forms

• benightedness noun
• benightedly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of benighted¹

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

Example Sentences

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.

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Abortion became a constitutional “right,” its opponents benighted sectarians.

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Lecornu’s benighted tenure—the shortest in the history of France’s modern Fifth Republic—is a measure of how a political system that was once a cornerstone of stability in Europe has fallen into disarray.

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The play, which is having its Los Angeles premiere at Pasadena Playhouse, seems like it could have been commissioned to skewer this destructive, benighted and completely mortifying anti-science moment.

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He’s a jingoistic caricature of benighted American exceptionalism, only now he’s reaching for the light of genuine goodness.

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