Meaning & use
benighted
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Meanings
adjectivecomparableformaldisapproving
Showing a lack of knowledge, culture or moral awareness, usually in the opinion of a speaker who looks down on it.
Grammar: Mostly before a noun: a benighted age. Often condescending.
Patterns
- a benighted age
- a benighted view
The author mocked the benighted attitudes of the old village elders.
Critics called the policy a benighted attempt to solve a modern problem.
In their benighted view, science was a threat to tradition.
adjectivecomparableliteraryold-fashioned
Overtaken by darkness or night, especially while traveling.
Grammar: Older, literary sense, often describing a traveler caught out after dark.
Patterns
- a benighted traveler
A benighted traveler knocked at the door of the farmhouse.
The benighted hikers lost the path in the dark.
They were benighted on the moor with no lantern.
Word forms
| comparative | more benighted |
|---|---|
| superlative | most benighted |
Common combinations
- benighted age
- Historians sometimes dismiss the period as a benighted age.
- benighted region
- The report described the benighted region as lacking schools.
- benighted soul
- He pitied the benighted souls who refused to learn.
- benighted attitude
- Her benighted attitude toward science embarrassed the committee.
- benighted traveler
- The benighted traveler was glad of a lit window.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ignorant
- Ignorant just means lacking knowledge, while benighted adds a judgment that the lack is a kind of darkness.
- unenlightened
- Unenlightened is more neutral and describes someone not exposed to new ideas, whereas benighted often sounds scornful.
- backward
- Backward is blunter and can sound offensive, while benighted is more literary and formal.
- uncivilized
- Uncivilized stresses rough manners or lack of culture, and carries stronger prejudice than benighted.
Opposites
Word family
- night noun
- the dark part of the day, the root of the word
- benight verb
- to plunge into darkness or ignorance, now rare
- benightedness noun
- the state of being benighted
- enlightened adjective
- well informed and open-minded, the opposite of benighted
Commonly confused: benighted or knighted?
benighted vs knighted
Knighted means given the rank of knight, and it has nothing to do with benighted despite the similar sound.
Practice
A writer calls a past society benighted. What is the writer most likely suggesting?
Choose one answer.
Benighted usually implies ignorance in the speaker's view. The darkness meaning is real but literal and rarer, so it is not the likeliest reading of a society.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “benighted”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.