enlightenment
/ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt/
enlightenment means A 17th- and 18th-century European intellectual and cultural movement emphasizing rationalism. The period during which it flourished is called the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, enlightenment ranks #2,382 of 14,297 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,737 of 14,445 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,470 of 14,322 for Scariest Words, #10,994 of 14,448 for Funniest Words.
enlightenment is pronounced /ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt/.
Why “enlightenment” is a great word
A state of profound spiritual or intellectual insight, or specifically, the 18th-century European intellectual movement emphasizing reason and individualism. Formed within English from the verb enlighten (from en-, 'cause to be,' and lighten, 'shed light on') with the noun-forming suffix -ment, it is first attested in the 1660s. Unlike epiphany, which is a sudden, personal flash, or nirvana, a specific, final release from Buddhist suffering, enlightenment implies a sustained, cultivated clarity. It is the hard-won calm of a mind that has pieced the puzzle, the stark, uniform light of a philosopher's study at dawn, and the cold, clear air on a mountain peak after a long ascent—a condition not of blinding brilliance, but of a permanent and often lonely dawn.
Etymology
Proprialization from enlightenment.
name
- A 17th- and 18th-century European intellectual and cultural movement emphasizing rationalism. The period during which it flourished is called the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason.“1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 36 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN
He first presented a complementary thesis on the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), in which he used the term “archaeology” for the first time, and which indicated the period of history to which he was constantly to return.
The Enlightenment: the intellectual, philosophical, cultural and scientifi”
- Synonym of Age of Enlightenment.“What is enlightenment? In a 1784 essay with that question as its title, Immanuel Kant answered that it consists of “humankind’s emergence from its self-incurred immaturity,” its “lazy and cowardly” submission to the “dogmas and formulas” of religious or political authority.¹ Enlightenment’s motto, he proclaimed, is “Dare to understand!” and its foundational demand is freedom of thought and speech.”
noun
- An act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed.
- A concept in spirituality, philosophy and psychology related to achieving clarity of perception, reason and knowledge.“But the man who has attained enlightenment sees that the apparent reality is mere illusion, or, as was said a couple of thousand years later, that there is nothing good nor bad but thinking makes it so.”
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