Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To give spiritual or intellectual insight to: "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day” ( Thomas Jefferson).
- v. To give information to; inform or instruct.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To shed light upon; supply with light; illuminate.
- To give intellectual or spiritual light to; illuminate by increase of knowledge and wisdom; instruct; impart knowledge to: as, to enlighten an ignorant community; she was soon enlightened as to his motives.
- Synonyms To illume, illumine, irradiate.
- To teach.
Wiktionary
- v. To supply with light; to illuminate; as, the sun enlightens the earth.
- v. To make clear to the intellect or conscience; to shed the light of truth and knowledge upon; to furnish with increase of knowledge; to instruct; as, to enlighten the mind or understanding.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To supply with light; to illuminate.
- v. To make clear to the intellect or conscience; to shed the light of truth and knowledge upon; to furnish with increase of knowledge; to instruct.
WordNet 3.0
- v. give spiritual insight to; in religion
- v. make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear
- v. make understand
Examples
“To enlighten is to bring light where there had previously been darkness, to replace opinion, i.e., superstition, by scientific knowledge of nature, beginning from phenomena available to all men and ending in rational demonstration possible for all men.”
“ROMULO: My friend, Mr. Ellis will have heard this term: it's called enlighten self-interest.”
“Some voices argue that we need to do a better job of firing youngsters 'imaginations when it comes to teaching history, by using learning tools that excite as well as enlighten - in other words making better use of edutainment, as it's known.”
“I wish I could -- enlighten, that is -- but I'm still baffled as to this condescending attitude of "I can do it myself".”
“In March, Narang began meeting with SEC commissioners to try to "enlighten" them about HFT.”
“When I said "enlighten" I was only saying, you may get some information that you do not already have that may add to your perspective on the situation, Stroszek.”
“While I think this is a great list, and try my best to follow this kind of advice, I have put waaay more effort into "letting it go" when I see infractions than I used to put into helping "enlighten" people who I thought would appreciate it.”
“Citizenship, school councils, and the like are all nonsense, brought about by well meaning but naive people who hoped to "enlighten" the next generation to think like them, without realising that they didn't think very much at all and now implemented by people who don't even believe in it.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“You could "enlighten" us with your views on Southerners...”
“(MDC) said on Saturday it would "enlighten" regional leaders who have dismissed the country's crises as exaggerated.”
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