enlightened

/ ɪnˈlaɪtənd /

adjective

1. factually well-informed, tolerant of alternative opinions, and guided by rational thought

   an enlightened administration

   enlightened self-interest

2. privy to or claiming a sense of spiritual or religious revelation of truth

   the search for an enlightened spiritual master

Example Sentences

For 18th-century enlightened reformers, ethnic diversity and multiculturalism weren’t good things.

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If Spain in the 1930s may look racially homogeneous from our supposedly enlightened point of view, Kaufman indirectly makes the point that such definitions are always subjective, and subject to historical revision.

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Condorcet had unshakeable faith in enlightened experts to manage French citizens as well as the fates of those outside Europe who were, as he put it, “vegetating in the infant condition of early times.”

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Self help gurus and HR departments teach us that finding your “whole self” is an enlightened goal.

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Funny side characters—the enlightened mom who looks down on people who use diapers; the chatty wife who will not stop talking about her husband’s vasectomy—fill out a believable cast.

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Related Words

• civilized 
• knowledgeable 
• literate 
• open-minded 
• reasonable 
• sophisticated 
• tolerant 
• well-informed