Word.ws English Dictionary

enlightment

enlightment is the alternative form of enlightenment.

Meaning of enlightenment

Noun

enlightenment (usually uncountable, plural enlightenments)

  1. (usually) An act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed.
  2. (usually) 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.1893, Thomas Huxley, Evolution and Ethics

See all 4 meanings of enlightenment

Proper noun capitalized: Enlightment

Enlightment

  1. (alternative, rare) Alternative form of Enlightenment.
    • The Enlightment worldview, which considered the order of "Nature" as a basis and, at the same time, the subject of explorations of scientific natural sciences, has, at the same time, considered this order as a criterion of the artistically-aesthetic qualities of art. From an "ideological" point of...1986, Piotr Buczkowski, Andrzej Klawiter, editors, Theories of Ideology and Ideology of Theories, Rodopi, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 57
    • […]with a mentality anchored in a profoundly influential and persistent hostility to central features of the Enlightment faith in the theoretical and practical autonomy of the human subject.1999, Nicholas Walker, “The Reorientation of Critical Theory: Habermas”, in Simon Glemdinning, editor, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Continental Philosophy, Routledge, →ISBN, page 489

Forms of enlightment

pluralenlightments

Questions about enlightment

What is enlightment the alternative form of?
Enlightment is the alternative form of enlightenment.
What part of speech is enlightment?
Enlightment is a proper noun.

Words near enlightment in the dictionary

  1. enlighteningly
  2. enlightenment
  3. enlightenments
  4. enlightens
  5. enlighting
  6. enlightment
  7. enlightments
  8. enlights
  9. Enlil
  10. enlimn
  11. enlimned

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: enlightment (page history and authors); Enlightment (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “enlightment.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/enlightment. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.