Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Illuminated; supplied with light; light-giving.
  • Possessing or manifesting enlightenment; having or showing much knowledge or acquired wisdom; specifically, freed from blinding ignorance, prejudice, superstition, etc.: used to note the highest stage of general human advancement, as in the series savage, barbarous, half-civilized, civilized, and enlightened.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective educated or informed
  • adjective Made aware of something
  • adjective Freed from illusion
  • adjective Exceedingly wise
  • noun Someone who has been introduced to the mysteries of some activity, religion especially Buddhism
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of enlighten.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having knowledge and spiritual insight
  • noun people who have been introduced to the mysteries of some field or activity
  • adjective characterized by full comprehension of the problem involved

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Murano used the term enlightened governance five times in the three-paragraph message but did not use the term that the students and faculty members voicing concern have been using -- shared governance.

    Local News | The Bryan College Station Eagle 2009

  • The next level of action is usually taken under the auspices of what I call "enlightened risk management," where a company sees the inter-dependencies between their raw material supply or their market and the world it lives in and then takes action, often in collaboration with an NGO, to protect it.

    RP Siegel: Are Beverage Companies Doing As Much As They Can for the Planet? RP Siegel 2011

  • And there even existed what we called enlightened despots.

    RALLY IN SANTIAGO 1971

  • The preacher may perhaps interest what he terms enlightened audiences, but when required to analyze truth and present it in a plain way to plain people he cannot do it.

    The religious instruction of the Negroes in the United States, 1842

  • It's that approach to life which we call enlightened, scientific.

    The Guardian World News 2010

  • The use of the term enlightened is telling, since the strongest argument for the acceptance of pornography — and the hard-core variety in particular — is precisely that it represents a form of sexual progress, a more civilized approach to the problem of the male libido than either the toleration of mass prostitution or the attempt, from the Victorian era onward, to simultaneously legislate prostitution away and hold married couples to an unreasonably high standard of fidelity.

    Is Pornography Adultery? 2008

  • The use of the term enlightened is telling, since the strongest argument for the acceptance of pornography — and the hard-core variety in particular — is precisely that it represents a form of sexual progress, a more civilized approach to the problem of the male libido than either the toleration of mass prostitution or the attempt, from the Victorian era onward, to simultaneously legislate prostitution away and hold married couples to an unreasonably high standard of fidelity.

    Is Pornography Adultery? 2008

  • It is called enlightened self-interest, and it is the exact same business plan pursued by the original architects for America's best and most prosperous cities.

    John Hope Bryant: Silver Rights and Generation Entrepreneurship: What a President With Vision Can Do John Hope Bryant 2011

  • I will give her credit for determining criteria for choosing the best, not an easy task, but I don't feel enlightened from the reading of the experience.

    Book Review: Fortune Cookie Chronicles melted_snowball 2010

  • I will give her credit for determining criteria for choosing the best, not an easy task, but I don't feel enlightened from the reading of the experience.

    Book Review: Fortune Cookie Chronicles melted_snowball 2010

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