Meanings
present singular third person enlightens · participle present enlightening · participle past enlightened · past enlightened
- figurativelytransitiveTo make something clear to (someone); to give knowledge or understanding to.
Care to enlighten me, if you think I'm so benighted?
5 more examples
She tried to enlighten them about the rules of the program, but they remained belligerently and self-righteously ignorant.
There was a warning sulkiness in the manner of this speech, which admonished Mr Pecksniff that his dear friend was not to be trifled with or fenced off, and that he must either return a straight–forward reply to his question, or plainly give him to understand that he declined to enlighten him upon the subject to which it referred.
1844, Charles Dickens, chapter 20, in Martin ChuzzlewitAs 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 TimesI'm in jail for what I hope will be a short stay and really quite lonely. 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 13Rather than focus on true-to-life drama that might have enlightened viewers, the BBC, frightened by Tory politicians’ threats to its very existence, concentrated its dramatic output on inaccurate historical soap operas, that falsified the view of our past.
2016 October 30, Bernie Evans, “The big issue: where the true blame lies for our dangerous politics of hate”, in The Guardian
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo supply with light.
verbTo make something clear to (someone); to give knowledge or understanding to.
More synonyms by meaning
verbmake free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Englishinlīhtan
- Middle Englishenlightenen
- Englishenlighten
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.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian осветявам, осведомявам
- осветявам (osvetjavam)to supply with light
- осведомявам (osvedomjavam)to make clear to the intellect
Czech osvítit
- osvítitto make clear to the intellect
Esperanto lumigi, prilumi
- lumigito supply with light
- prilumito supply with light
Finnish valaista, valistaa
- valaistato supply with light
- valistaato make clear to the intellect
French éclairer, éclairer
- éclairerto supply with light
- éclairerto make clear to the intellect
- informerto make clear to the intellect
German aufklären
- aufklärento make clear to the intellect
Greek φωτίζω, διαφωτίζω
- φωτίζω (fotízo)to supply with light
- διαφωτίζω (diafotízo)to make clear to the intellect
Hebrew האיר, האיר
- האיר (ha-ir)to supply with light
- האיר (ha-ir)to make clear to the intellect
Hungarian kivilágít, megvilágít
- kivilágítto supply with light
- megvilágítto supply with light
- felvilágosítto make clear to the intellect
Italian illuminare
- illuminareto supply with light
Polish oświecać, uświadamiać
- oświecaćto supply with light
- uświadamiaćto supply with light
- oświecaćto make clear to the intellect
- uświadamiaćto make clear to the intellect
Portuguese iluminar, iluminar
- iluminarto supply with light
- iluminarto make clear to the intellect
- esclarecerto make clear to the intellect
Romanian ilumina, lămuri
- iluminato supply with light
- lămurito make clear to the intellect
Russian освеща́ть, освети́ть
- освеща́ть (osveščátʹ)to supply with light
- освети́ть (osvetítʹ)to supply with light
- просвеща́ть (prosveščátʹ)to make clear to the intellect
- просвети́ть (prosvetítʹ)to make clear to the intellect
- осведомля́ть (osvedomljátʹ)to make clear to the intellect
- осведоми́ть (osvedomítʹ)to make clear to the intellect
Spanish alumbrar, esclarecer
- alumbrarto supply with light
- esclarecerto supply with light
- esclarecerto make clear to the intellect
- alumbrarto make clear to the intellect
Swedish belysa, upplysa
- belysato supply with light
- upplysato make clear to the intellect
Tagalog maliwanagan
- maliwanaganto make clear to the intellect
Turkish aydınlatmak, bilgilendirmek
- aydınlatmakto supply with light
- bilgilendirmekto make clear to the intellect
Ukrainian просвіща́ти, просвіти́ти
- просвіща́ти (prosviščáty)to make clear to the intellect
- просвіти́ти (prosvitýty)to make clear to the intellect
Vietnamese làm sáng tỏ
- làm sáng tỏto supply with light
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with enlighten
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
enlighten. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enlighten
“enlighten.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enlighten. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “enlighten,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enlighten.
Source: enlighten on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.