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

Example Sentences

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

Banham’s revolutionary study has aged both well and badly; his sense of the liberatory aspect of the freeways, for instance, now seems both sentimental and benighted.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2023

In February 2018, she wrote an article for the Washington Post, calling Bostic's sentence "benighted and unjust".

From BBC • Mar. 20, 2023

Said Sullivan, “It soon became noticeable that he was progressively and grossly apologizing to the Eastern men for the presence of their benighted brethren of the West.”

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson