Enlightener
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One who, or that which, enlightens.
"The heart entirely engrossed by one, is the last to suspect it can be the object of preference to another. Vanity, the great enlightener on such subjects, is here lost in a more powerful feeling. She never thought of Mr. Spenser in any other character than as a pleasant acquaintance."
- 2 One who, or that which, enlightens.; A thinker of the Age of Enlightenment.
"The French enlightener Jean-François Marmontel […]"
Example
More examples"The heart entirely engrossed by one, is the last to suspect it can be the object of preference to another. Vanity, the great enlightener on such subjects, is here lost in a more powerful feeling. She never thought of Mr. Spenser in any other character than as a pleasant acquaintance."
Etymology
From enlighten + -er.
More for "enlightener"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.