Word.ws English Dictionary

Counter-Enlightenment

Counter-Enlightenment noun: any of various strains of thought in opposition to the Enlightenment or its ideals.

Noun

Counter-Enlightenment (plural Counter-Enlightenments)

  1. Any of various strains of thought in opposition to the Enlightenment or its ideals.
    • Indeed, a common criticism of the Enlightenment project—that it is a Western invention, unsuited to the world in all its diversity—is doubly wrongheaded. For one thing, all ideas have to come from somewhere, and their birthplace has no bearing on their merit. Though many Enlightenment ideas were...2018, Steven Pinker, “Chapter 3: Counter-Enlightenments”, in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Penguin, →ISBN

Forms of Counter-Enlightenment

pluralCounter-Enlightenments

Origin of Counter-Enlightenment

From counter- + Enlightenment.

Questions about Counter-Enlightenment

What does Counter-Enlightenment mean?
Counter-Enlightenment means any of various strains of thought in opposition to the Enlightenment or its ideals.
What part of speech is Counter-Enlightenment?
Counter-Enlightenment is a noun.
What is the plural of Counter-Enlightenment?
The plural of Counter-Enlightenment is Counter-Enlightenments.

Words near Counter-Enlightenment in the dictionary

  1. counter-earth
  2. counter-economics
  3. counter-electrophoresis
  4. counter-embattled
  5. counter-embowed
  6. Counter-Enlightenment
  7. Counter-Enlightenments
  8. counter-entropic
  9. counter-ermine
  10. counter-espionage
  11. counter-evidence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Counter-Enlightenment (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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