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The idea of progress - the notion that human history is the history of human betterment - dominated the world view of the West between the Enlightenment and the First World War.
Jill Lepore

Meaning of "the Enlightenment" in the English dictionary

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DICTIONARY
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PRONUNCIATION OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

the Enlightenment play
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WHAT DOES THE ENLIGHTENMENT MEAN IN ENGLISH?

the Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th-century Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. Its purpose was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method. It promoted scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange. The Enlightenment was a revolution in human thought. This new way of thinking was that rational thought begins with clearly stated principles, uses correct logic to arrive at conclusions, tests the conclusions against evidence, and then revises the principles in the light of the evidence. Enlightenment thinkers opposed superstition. Some Enlightenment thinkers collaborated with Enlightened despots, absolutist rulers who attempted to forcibly put some of the new ideas about government into practice. The ideas of the Enlightenment continue to exert significant influence on the culture, politics, and governments of the Western world.

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE THE ENLIGHTENMENT

the Early Renaissance
the Earthshaker
the east
the East End
the East Indies
the Ediacaran
the electric chair
the Empire
the end
the end of the road
the English
the Eocene
the Establishment
the Eternal City
the ether
the Everglades
the evil eye
the Evil One
the Exile
the Exodus

WORDS THAT END LIKE THE ENLIGHTENMENT

abandonment
adjournment
adornment
advertisement
alignment
assignment
attainment
built environment
central government
consignment
containment
enlightenment
entertainment
environment
Federal Government
government
imprisonment
infotainment
local government
national unity government
open government

Synonyms and antonyms of the Enlightenment in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «the Enlightenment» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Find out the translation of the Enlightenment to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of the Enlightenment from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «the Enlightenment» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

启蒙
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

la Ilustración
570 millions of speakers

English

the Enlightenment
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

आत्मज्ञान
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

التنوير
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

Просвещение
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

o Iluminismo
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

জ্ঞানদান
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

Lumières
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Pencerahan
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

die Aufklärung
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

啓蒙
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

계몽주의
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Ing Pencerahan
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

Khai sáng
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

அறிவொளி
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

ज्ञान
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

Aydınlanma
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

l´Illuminismo
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

Oświecenie
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

Просвітництво
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

Iluminismul
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

ο Διαφωτισμός
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

die Verligting
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

upplysningen
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

opplysningstiden
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of the Enlightenment

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «THE ENLIGHTENMENT»

The term «the Enlightenment» is quite widely used and occupies the 50.713 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
77
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «the Enlightenment» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of the Enlightenment
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «the Enlightenment».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «THE ENLIGHTENMENT» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «the Enlightenment» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «the Enlightenment» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about the Enlightenment

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «THE ENLIGHTENMENT»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word the Enlightenment.
1
Jan Peter Balkenende
Our society is the product of several great religious and philosophical traditions. The ideas of the Greeks and Romans, Christianity, Judaism, humanism and the Enlightenment have made us who we are.
2
J. G. Ballard
The Enlightenment view of mankind is a complete myth. It leads us into thinking we're sane and rational creatures most of the time, and we're not.
3
John Boehner
Our freedoms were born in the ideals of the Enlightenment and the musket fires of an historic revolution.
4
Robert Bork
Modernity, the child of the Enlightenment, failed when it became apparent that the good society cannot be achieved by unaided reason.
5
David Cameron
From Caesar's legions to the Napoleonic wars. From the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution to the defeat of nazism. We have helped to write European history, and Europe has helped write ours.
6
Noam Chomsky
With the development of industrial capitalism, a new and unanticipated system of injustice, it is libertarian socialism that has preserved and extended the radical humanist message of the Enlightenment and the classical liberal ideals that were perverted into an ideology to sustain the emerging social order.
7
Robert Darnton
While confronting the problems of the present, I often find myself thinking back to the world of books as it was experienced by the Founding Fathers and the philosophers of the Enlightenment.
8
Christopher Dawson
The sublimated idealism of the Enlightenment, the spirit of the League of Nations and of the United Nations Charter have not proved strong enough to control the aggressive dynamism of nationalism.
9
Eric Kandel
Ever since the Enlightenment, people thought that we were living in a rational universe. They thought that God was a mathematician and that the function of the scientist was to figure out the mathematical rules whereby the universe was created.
10
Jill Lepore
The idea of progress - the notion that human history is the history of human betterment - dominated the world view of the West between the Enlightenment and the First World War.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «THE ENLIGHTENMENT»

Discover the use of the Enlightenment in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to the Enlightenment and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
The Enlightenment
In this book, Norman Hampson follows through certain dominant themes in the Enlightenment, and describes the contemporary social and political climate, in which ideas could travel from the salons of Paris to the court of Catherine the Great ...
Norman Hampson, 1990
2
The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters
Belief in reason and progress. The value of scientific inquiry. These are just some of the ideas that were conceived and developed during the Enlightenment, and which changed forever the intellectual landscape of the Western world.
Anthony Pagden, 2013
3
The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom
The second volume of Peter Gay's in-depth study of the dawn of the modern world—the Age of Reason.
Peter Gay, 1996
4
The Enlightenment: The rise of modern paganism
In the twentieth century, however, the Enlightenment has often been judged harshly for its apparently simplistic optimism. Now a master historian goes back to the sources to give a fully rounded account of its true accomplishments.
Peter Gay, 1995
5
The Enlightenment Bible: Translation, Scholarship, Culture
How did the Bible survive the Enlightenment? In this book, Jonathan Sheehan shows how Protestant translators and scholars in the eighteenth century transformed the Bible from a book justified by theology to one justified by culture.
Jonathan Sheehan, 2005
6
The Enlightenment and the Book: Scottish Authors and Their ...
The Enlightenment and the Book seeks to remedy the common misperception that such classics as The Wealth of Nations and The Life of Samuel Johnson were written by authors who eyed their publishers as minor functionaries in their profession.
Richard B. Sher, 2008
7
The Enlightenment
It is helpful to follow Kant's lead, and to think about the Enlightenment as a series ofinterlocking, and sometimes warring problems and debates. These were problems and debates which affected how the Enlightenment worked not only in  ...
Dorinda Outram, 2013
8
The Enlightenment
The texts are supported by a lucid introduction exploring their moral, philosophical, political and economic background, enabling the student to grasp both the context and the essence of each argument.
David Williams, 1999
9
The Enlightenment, Second Edition
Modern scholarship, however, has shown it was a more complex and ambiguous movement than commonly recognized. This book, now in a fully updated second edition, sympathetically explores the complexities of the Enlightenment.
Roy Porter, 2001
10
The Enlightenment: A Sourcebook and Reader
The Enlightenment brings together the work of major Enlightenment thinkers such as Hobbes, Rousseau, Diderot and Kant, to illustrate the full importance and achievements of this period in history.
Paul Hyland, Olga Gomez, Francesca Greensides, 2003

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «THE ENLIGHTENMENT»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term the Enlightenment is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Fulfilling the Enlightenment dream
The scholars and thinkers of the Enlightenment sought to identify principles of natural law that transcend our religious, social, ethnic, and racial differences in a ... «NWAOnline, Jul 15»
2
American Music Theatre Project to Workshop New Musical THE
The American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University will workshop and present a staged reading of the new musical "The Enlightenment of ... «Broadway World, May 15»
3
'The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay,' by Andrea Gillies
In her disturbing and sometimes tantalizing second novel, “The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay,” Andrea Gillies peels back decades of Nina and Luca's bonds ... «New York Times, May 15»
4
Peter Gay, historian who wrote about Freud and the Enlightenment
Peter Gay, a popular and prizewinning historian who meticulously traced the rise of secular Western thought, from a history of the Enlightenment to a best-selling ... «Washington Post, May 15»
5
At time of crisis, French turn to a beacon of the Enlightenment
Paris (CNN) A traumatic event, such as the 9/11 attacks or the assault on Charlie Hebdo in Paris two weeks ago, can produce huge shifts in public opinion. «CNN, Jan 15»
6
Bodhi Day 2014: Commemorating The Enlightenment Of The Buddha
Bodhi Day is a Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the Buddha achieved enlightenment, translated as bodhi in Sanskrit or Pali. Bodhi Day is ... «Huffington Post, Dec 14»
7
This crude assault on Europe strikes at the very heart of …
Yet Europe's peoples are shaped by its Christian past, however secular we have now become, and by the Enlightenment, with its commitment to rationality, rule ... «The Guardian, Oct 14»
8
What The World Needs Now Is A New Enlightenment
Something quite extraordinary happened in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries: the diversified intellectual explosion called the Enlightenment. «NPR, Jul 14»
9
Enlightenment Linux: It's Not What You Think
The Enlightenment desktop environment is not for everyone. Experienced Linux fans may delight in some new light bulbs switching on, but Linux newcomers ... «LinuxInsider.com, May 14»
10
The Enlightenment: Inspiring Quotes From The Age Of Reason
The Enlightenment stands out as one of the periods in human history that profoundly impacted and advanced our understanding of the world we live in. «Huffington Post, Feb 14»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. The Enlightenment [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/the-enlightenment>. Apr 2024 ».
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