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.
But seen today, in a transfer that glistens, it is more interesting than that: It’s Lean’s daring attempt to make a love triangle appear as monumental as it would have seemed to its benighted participants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
It is the latest in a litany of disasters to befall one of the most benighted industrial cities in Europe, repeatedly blanketed in lethal smoke from similar blazes.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
It’s more like an existential dilemma, both for our bewildered and benighted country and for the world.
From Salon ● Jan. 3, 2026
The first two PMs in this benighted parliament – Barnier and Bayrou – took weeks to find.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2025
He was, she thought, like a cursed temple, still beautiful to look at—the shell of something sacred—but benighted within, and none but ghosts could ever cross the threshold.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
