ENLIGHTENMENT • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Enlightenment

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɛnlˈaɪtənmənt/ Listen

Enlightenment

noun

Education that results in understanding and the spread of knowledge.

(Hinduism and Buddhism) the beatitude that transcends the cycle of reincarnation; characterized by the extinction of desire and suffering and individual consciousness. Synonym: nirvana.

A movement in Europe from about 1650 until 1800 that advocated the use of reason and individualism instead of tradition and established doctrine. Synonym: Age of Reason.

See more definitions of Enlightenment...

See images of 'Enlightenment'

Antonyms of 'Enlightenment'

Etymology of 'Enlightenment'

Share |

"Enlightenment" Quotes from Famous Books

... this with kisses, soft and wet; with fleeting touches; with coquettish glances and the sly display of her charms; with rambling, fantastic tales of her desirability in the regard of men—thus practicing all the familiar fascinations of her kind, according to the enlightenment of the world she knew. He must be persuaded, she thought, that his mother was beautiful, coveted; convinced of her wit and gaiety: else he would not love her. Life had taught her no other way.... And always at break of day, when he awoke in her arms, ...

— The Mother • Norman Duncan

... overlaid and obscured by accretions foreign to it; denied the historical truth of the Gospels, and, like a true disciple of Hegel, ascribed the troubles of the 19th century to the overmastering influence of the "ENLIGHTENMENT" or the "AUFKLAeRUNG" (q. v.) that characterised the 18th. His last work was entitled "Disraeli's Romantic ...

— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... intellectual stagnation thus generally produced, we must admit that we are indebted to the Church for the preservation of many valuable works. There were many men of learning in the monasteries, and some of sufficient enlightenment to be able to venerate the relics of Greek and Latin literature. We find that in the East the works of Aristophanes were so much admired by St. Chrysostom that he slept with them under his pillow. Perhaps the Saint enjoyed the ...

— History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) - With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange

... shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist. Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment (even when freed from modern rules and hours, and exercised more spontaneously by a more protected person) is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that ...

— What's Wrong With The World • G.K. Chesterton

... Sarah Trotter and Pocahontas Simmons, persons of color and Rev. S. E. Colburn, a white man. The number of pupils enrolled in the first year approached forty. To encourage Negroes in that city to avail themselves of their opportunity for their enlightenment, these teachers moved among the people from time to time, pointing out the necessity for more extensive preparation to discharge the functions of citizenship then devolving upon Negroes in their new State of freedom after ...

— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922 • Various

More quotes...