enlightenment

/ɪnˈlaɪɾɪnmɪnt/

/ɛnˈlaɪtɛnmɛnt/

Other forms: enlightenments

Enlightenment is education or awareness that brings change, such as your enlightenment about nutrition that leads you to throw out every last bit of your family's junk food.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, enlightenment is also sometimes called "awakening" — after all, the name "Buddha" means "the awakened one." Not all enlightenments are spiritual: your enlightenment about environmental issues, for example, can awaken you to new ways of conserving resources like water and electricity. The Enlightenment started in the 1700s, a historical era defined by a focus on reason and science.

Definitions of enlightenment

1. noun

   education that results in understanding and the spread of knowledge
   antonyms:

   unenlightenment

   a lack of understanding

   types:

   edification, sophistication

   uplifting enlightenment

   satori

   (Zen Buddhism) a state of sudden spiritual enlightenment

   disenchantment, disillusion, disillusionment

   freedom from false belief or illusions

   type of:

   education

   knowledge acquired by learning and instruction
2. noun

   (Hinduism and Buddhism) the beatitude that transcends the cycle of reincarnation; characterized by the extinction of desire and suffering and individual consciousness
   synonyms: nirvana

   type of:

   beatification, beatitude, blessedness

   a state of supreme happiness