enlighten
Syllables: en·light·en/ɪnˈlaɪtən/
enlighten verb: to supply with light.
Verb
enlighten (third-person singular simple present enlightens, present participle enlightening, simple past and past participle enlightened)
- To supply with light.
- The sun enlightens the Earth.
- To make something clear to (someone); to give knowledge or understanding to.
- She tried to enlighten them about the rules of the program, but they remained belligerently and self-righteously ignorant.
- Care to enlighten me, if you think I'm so benighted?
enlighten meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
enlighten in Tamil
- விளக்கு, தெளிவாக்கு, தெளிவூட்டு, ஐயந்தெளிவி, அறிவூட்டு, கற்பி
enlighten in Marathi
- to enlighten
- कळवणे kaḷavṇe
enlighten in Urdu
- to enlighten, irradiate
- اجالنا ujālnā
enlighten in Bengali
- আলোকিত করা, জ্ঞান দান করা
More languagesFewer languages
- enlighten in Telugu
- జ్ఞానోదయం కలిగించడానికి
- enlighten in Malayalam
- ബോധവത്കരിക്കുക, മുൻവിധി മാറ്റുക, പ്രകാശമാനമാക്കുക
- enlighten in Kannada
- ಬೆಳಗು beḷagu
- enlighten in Sanskrit
- बोधति bódhati, बुध्यते búdhyate, रुच् ruc
- enlighten in Nepali
- प्रबोधन गर्ने
- enlighten in Tagalog
- maliwanagan
- enlighten in Vietnamese
- làm sáng tỏ
Examples of enlighten in a sentence
- As your reviewer showed, the purpose of the translator and publishers is to help along the labor movement by furnishing a lesson from the past to enlighten the movement of to-day.1904 August 27, John Hossack, “The Mysteries of the People”, in New York Times:
- If there are any who would care to correspond, I will be greatly pleased and will try to enlighten any and all to the hardships we have in prison.1976 August 21, Donald Dougherty, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 8, page 13:
Synonyms of enlighten
12 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of enlighten
| third-person singular present | enlightens |
|---|---|
| present participle | enlightening |
| past participle | enlightened |
| past | enlightened |
Origin of enlighten
Formerly also inlighten, from Middle English enlightenen, inlightnen, a hybrid formed from inlighten (“to enlighten, illuminate”), from Old English inlīhtan, onlīhtan, enlīhtan (“to enlighten, illuminate, give light to, give sight to”) and lightnen (“to enlighten, illuminate”) (equivalent to light + -en). Cognate with Dutch inlichten (“to enlighten, inform”), Old High German inliuhten (“to enlighten, illuminate”), Gothic 𐌹𐌽𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌷𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (inliuhtjan, “to enlighten, illuminate”). More at inlight, -en.
Words formed from enlighten
Words that rhyme with enlighten
Questions about enlighten
- What does enlighten mean?
- Enlighten means to supply with light.
- What is enlighten in Tamil?
- Enlighten in Tamil is விளக்கு, தெளிவாக்கு, தெளிவூட்டு. See Enlighten meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use enlighten in a sentence?
- As your reviewer showed, the purpose of the translator and publishers is to help along the labor movement by furnishing a lesson from the past to enlighten the movement of to-day.
- What part of speech is enlighten?
- Enlighten is a verb.
- How do you pronounce enlighten?
- Enlighten is pronounced /ɪnˈlaɪtən/.
- What is the past tense of enlighten?
- The past tense of enlighten is enlightened.
Words near enlighten in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: enlighten (page history and authors); enlighten (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कळवणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); اجالنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); Enlighten (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); enlighten (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); enlighten (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಬೆಳಗು (Kannada) (page history and authors); बुध्यते (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); enlighten (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-enlighten.wav.
Cite this entry: “enlighten.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/enlighten. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.