enlightenment

noun enlightenments · enlightment

1. uncountable, usually An act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed.
2. uncountable, 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.

Similar: epiphany, peace that passeth understanding, bodhi, nirvana, satori, zen

proper noun the Enlightenment · Enlightment

1. A 17th- and 18th-century European intellectual and cultural movement emphasizing rationalism. The period during which it flourished is called the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason. He first presented a complementary thesis on the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), in which he used the term “archaeology” for the first time, and which indicated the period of history to which he was constantly to return. The Enlightenment: the intellectual, philosophical, cultur

   Similar: European Enlightenment, Euro-American Enlightenment, Western Enlightenment, Aufklärung

2. Synonym of Age of Enlightenment. What is enlightenment? In a 1784 essay with that question as its title, Immanuel Kant answered that it consists of “humankind’s emergence from its self-incurred immaturity,” its “lazy and cowardly” submission to the “dogmas and formulas” of religious or political authority.¹ Enlightenment’s motto, h

   Similar: Age of Enlightenment