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Glite Dictionary
🙈 To make ignorant 🌑 To make dark
to benight

to benight

1 9.9
To make people lack knowledge or stop them from learning
  • verb
  • /bɪˈnaɪt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : sumergir en la ignorancia
  • It shows that the country is not only deeply divided on politics, but still has citizens who are profoundly benighted on issues of race.

Examples

  • His benighted views on education reflect a lack of understanding and innovation.

  • The documentary aimed to illuminate the benighted regions of society that lack access to basic information.

  • "It was just this kind of destruction by benighted special interests that the larger American public would have to prevent.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The military, benighted as they are, would not permit it unless it was reasonable; you know that, George.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • We dispatched our management consultants and our notions of fiscal responsibility out into the benighted abroad and were annoyed when those places did not immediately improve in grateful return.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Many people remain benighted about climate change, failing to see its urgency.

Antonyms

to enlighten
55 4.8

To give someone clear information to help them understand something

to illuminate
51 4.8

To make something clear or easier to understand

How Enlightened

to enlighten
55 4.8
to teach
∞ 1.0
to inform
∞ 1.0
to benight
  • Archaic
1 9.9

Surface Forms

benight infinitive
benighting present participle
benights third person singular
benighted past
benighted past participle

Morphology

benight = night (opaque) = be + night

The prefix 'be-' is used to form verbs, but the metaphorical sense of 'benight' as 'to make ignorant' is not directly derivable from 'night'.

Etymology

Benight combines the parts be- and night, where be- is a common verb start like in befriend or become meaning 'make' or 'around' and night means 'dark'. It originally meant to put someone 'into night', so it came to mean 'leave in the dark' — that is, to make someone ignorant or unenlightened.