Synonyms of benighted

benighted

adjective

bi-ˈnī-təd 

as in ignorant

lacking in education or the knowledge gained from books

the poor benighted souls who do not know the joys of reading

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ignorant
• dark
• uneducated
• untutored
• inexperienced
• untaught
• illiterate
• unschooled
• uninstructed
• unlearned
• nonliterate
• unlettered
• simple
• innocent
• unread
• naive
• rude
• foolish
• naïve
• uncultured
• semiliterate
• analphabetic
• unknowledgeable
• unsophisticated
• stupid
• idiotic
• uncultivated
• functionally illiterate
• artless
• callow
• dumb
• lowbrow
• green
• moronic
• imbecile
• imbecilic
• unskilled
• innumerate
• witless
• untrained
• silly
• philistine
• brainless
• idiotical
• senseless
• raw

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• literate
• educated
• brilliant
• knowledgeable
• intelligent
• experienced
• smart
• expert
• lettered
• intellectual
• well-informed
• erudite
• trained
• well-read
• learned
• schooled
• scholarly
• familiar
• cultured
• sophisticated
• cultivated
• aware
• acquainted
• highbrow
• polymathic
• polymath
• polyhistoric

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of benighted

On the ideological battlefield, efforts by Saudi clerics to delegitimize Salafi jihadism might seem hypocritical to Westerners, given the benighted views these clerics themselves hold. —F. Gregory Gause Iii, Foreign Affairs, 13 June 2016

Many critics judge Elvis’s refusal to abandon a rural, working-class culture as backward and benighted, tempering his artistic success. —Michael T. Bertrand, The Conversation, 5 June 2024

Afterward, the northern Sayyids were scorned as relics of a benighted theocratic era, and many fell into poverty. —Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 5 Mar. 2024

There may be a touch of Cloud Atlas-style dystopian condescension in the notion of bringing AI to the benighted continent of Europe. —Peter Vanham, Fortune Europe, 13 Feb. 2024