enlightenment

See also: Enlightenment

English

Alternative forms

• enlightment (rare)

Etymology

Etymology tree

English enlighten

Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥

Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom

Proto-Italic *-mentom

Latin -mentum

Old French -mentbor.

Middle English -ment

English -ment

English enlightenment

From enlighten + -ment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt/, /ənˈlaɪtənmənt/, /-laɪtmənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

enlightenment (usually uncountable, plural enlightenments)

1. An act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed.
2. A concept in spirituality, philosophy and psychology related to achieving clarity of perception, reason and knowledge.
   • 1893, Thomas Huxley, Evolution and Ethics:

     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.

   • 2014 July 31, Oliver C. Speck, editor, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained: The Continuation of Metacinema‎^[1], Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 25:

     Thus Django becomes the carrier of the “public use of one's reason”—the Kantian road to enlightenment given to him by the German “Forty-Eighter” dentist–turned-bounty hunter Dr. “King” Schultz, and represents the fictive, allohistorical beginning of the battle against slavery and racism in the United States.

Synonyms

• epiphany
• peace that passeth understanding
• bodhi, nirvana, satori, zen

Derived terms

• Enlightenment
• pseudoenlightenment

Translations

act of enlightening, state of being enlightened

• Albanian: ndriçim (sq)
• Arabic: تَنْوِير m (tanwīr)
• Azerbaijani: maarif, maariflənmə, maarifləndirmə, maarifləndirilmə
• Belarusian: асве́тніцтва n (asvjétnictva)
• Bulgarian: просве́та (bg) f (prosvéta)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 啟發 / 启发 (zh) (qǐfā), 啟迪 / 启迪 (zh) (qǐdí), 教育 (zh) (jiàoyù), 啟蒙 / 启蒙 (zh) (qǐméng), 教化 (zh) (jiàohuà)

• Czech: osvícení n
• Dutch: verlichting (nl)
• Finnish: valaistuminen (fi)
• Galician: esclarecemento (gl) m
• Georgian: განათლება (ganatleba)
• German: Aufklärung (de) f
• Greek: φώτιση (el) f (fótisi)
• Hindi: प्रबोधन (hi) m (prabodhan)
• Hungarian: megvilágosodás (hu)
• Indonesian: pencerahan (id)
• Irish: léargas m
• Italian: illuminismo (it) m
• Japanese: 悟り (ja) (さとり, satori)
• Kazakh: ағартушылық (ağartuşylyq)
• Khmer: ការត្រាស់ដឹង (kaa trah dəng)
• Latin: lux (la) f
• Macedonian: просветлување n (prosvetluvanje), просвета f (prosveta)
• Malay: kecerahan (ms), penyedaran (act of), kesedaran (ms) (state of)
• Maltese: tidwil
• Māori: māramatanga
• Nepali: प्रबुद्धता (prabuddhatā)
• Polish: oświecenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: esclarecimento (pt) m
• Romanian: iluminism (ro) n, luminism (ro) n
• Russian: просвеще́ние (ru) n (prosveščénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: просвећење n, просвјећење n

  Latin: prosvećenje n, prosvjećenje n

• Spanish: iluminación (es) f, alumbramiento m, esclarecimiento (es) m
• Swedish: upplysning (sv) c
• Telugu: జ్ఞానోదయం (jñānōdayaṁ)
• Turkish: aydınlanma (tr)
• Ukrainian: осві́чення n (osvíčennja), осві́та (uk) f (osvíta), просві́тництво n (prosvítnyctvo)
• Welsh: goleuedigaeth f

philosophy and psychology related to achieving clarity of perception, reason and knowledge — see also nirvana,‎ Zen

• Belarusian: асве́тніцтва n (asvjétnictva)
• Bulgarian: просвеще́ние (bg) n (prosvešténie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 開悟 / 开悟 (zh) (kāiwù), 啟蒙 / 启蒙 (zh) (qǐméng)

• Czech: osvícenství (cs) n
• Danish: oplysning (da) c
• Dutch: verlichting (nl) f
• Finnish: valistus (fi)
• French: illumination (fr) f
• German: Aufklärung (de) f
• Greek: διαφωτισμός (el) (diafotismós)
• Hindi: प्रबोधन (hi) m (prabodhan), जागरण (hi) m (jāgraṇ)
• Hungarian: felvilágosodás (hu)
• Irish: soilsiú m, léargas m
• Italian: illuminazione (it) f
• Japanese: 悟り (ja) (satori), 啓蒙 (ja) (けいもう, keimō)
• Korean: 계몽(啓蒙) (ko) (gyemong)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: просветителство n (prosvetitelstvo)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: гэгээрэл (mn) (gegeerel)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: opplysing m

• Persian: رُوشَنگَری (rowšangari)
• Polish: oświecenie (pl) n
• Romanian: iluminare (ro) f
• Russian: просвеще́ние (ru) n (prosveščénije), просветле́ние (ru) n (prosvetlénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: просветитељство n, просвјетитељство n

• Slovak: osvietenstvo n
• Slovene: razsvetljenstvo n
• Spanish: iluminación (es) f, ilustración (es) f, iluminismo (es) m, alumbramiento m (disused)
• Swedish: upplysning (sv) c
• Thai: การตรัสรู้ (th) (gaan-dtràt-sà-rúu), การรู้แจ้ง (th)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: просві́тництво n (prosvítnyctvo)
• Vietnamese: sự giác ngộ (覺悟), sự khai ngộ (開悟)
• Welsh: goleuedigaeth f

References

• “enlightenment”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• enlightenment in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “enlightenment”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.