enlightenment

[en-lahyt-n-muhnt]

noun

1. the act of enlightening.

2. the state of being enlightened.

   to live in spiritual enlightenment.

3. (usually initial capital letter),  prajna.

4. the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement of the 18th century, characterized by belief in the power of human reason and by innovations in political, religious, and educational doctrine.

enlightenment

¹

/ ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt /

noun

1. the act or means of enlightening or the state of being enlightened

2. Buddhism the awakening to ultimate truth by which man is freed from the endless cycle of personal reincarnations to which all men are otherwise subject

3. Hinduism a state of transcendent divine experience represented by Vishnu: regarded as a goal of all religion

Enlightenment

²

/ ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt /

noun

1. an 18th-century philosophical movement stressing the importance of reason and the critical reappraisal of existing ideas and social institutions

Enlightenment

1. An intellectual movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries marked by a celebration of the powers of human reason, a keen interest in science, the promotion of religious toleration, and a desire to construct governments free of tyranny. Some of the major figures of the Enlightenment were David Hume, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, the Baron de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire.

Other Word Forms

• preenlightenment noun
• reenlightenment noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Enlightenment¹

First recorded in 1660–70; enlighten + -ment

Example Sentences

Indeed, as a viewer in search of entertainment rather than enlightenment, it’s best to treat these characters, however much attached they are to the real people whose names they bear, as entirely fictional.

From Los Angeles Times

Let us put it to scholars, men of enlightenment and reason.

From Los Angeles Times

From that moment to his present life in Japan, he has sought musical enlightenment in music wherever he can find it.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s one thing to become transfixed by a fictional character going down a scripted wormhole for the purposes of narrative enlightenment or comedy.

From Los Angeles Times

A Bodhi tree might signal the sacred place where Buddha’s deep insight into enlightenment occurred, or a drawn or carved footprint would be suggestive of following a path.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• awareness 
• civilization 
• insight 
• literacy 
• sophistication 
• understanding 
• wisdom