as in ignorant
lacking in education or the knowledge gained from books
the poor benighted souls who do not know the joys of reading
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Recent Examples of benighted
And this is just a small sampling of the kind of far-right legal reasoning that routinely escapes this benighted court.
—
Ian Millhiser, Vox, 25 Sep. 2024
In its 50th anniversary year, the storied fantasy role-playing game is now making a long-overdue, and noteworthy, correction to its scientifically benighted treatment of race.
—Steven Dashiell, Scientific American, 31 July 2024
Israel is the only bastion in this benighted region preventing Iran from taking control through its terrorist proxies.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 27 July 2024
Many critics judge Elvis’s refusal to abandon a rural, working-class culture as backward and benighted, tempering his artistic success.
—Michael T. Bertrand, The Conversation, 5 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for benighted
Ian Millhiser, Vox, 25 Sep. 2024
In its 50th anniversary year, the storied fantasy role-playing game is now making a long-overdue, and noteworthy, correction to its scientifically benighted treatment of race.
—Steven Dashiell, Scientific American, 31 July 2024
Israel is the only bastion in this benighted region preventing Iran from taking control through its terrorist proxies.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 27 July 2024
Many critics judge Elvis’s refusal to abandon a rural, working-class culture as backward and benighted, tempering his artistic success.
—Michael T. Bertrand, The Conversation, 5 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for benighted
Recent Examples of Synonyms for benighted
ignorant
Adjective
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Consequently, many of those enslaved in Texas remained ignorant of the proclamation’s potential impact on their lives, or of the fact the Civil War had functionally ended two months earlier.—
Timothy Welbeck,
The Conversation,
16 June 2025
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Careless or ignorant reporting has obscured objective reality.—
Nicholas DiMarzio,
New York Daily News,
13 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Benighted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/benighted. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
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