enlighten
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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A director who loves our country and wants to enlighten us with consequential historical exhibits would be a better fit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
He offers never-ending reruns of the same speech, and at this point it fails to entertain, enlighten or move anyone.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
So can you enlighten us as to the great wisdom Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito share in their own concurrences?
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2025
"I think in the spirit of the bikers, Dave would want me to continue to have fun and to educate, to inform, to enlighten, to be slightly edgy," he says.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2024
I have read your letters to poor Lucy, and know how good you are and how your husband suffer; so I pray you, if it may be, enlighten him not, lest it may harm.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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There's not a lot of focus on music that enlightens people, and that carries over to other products as well.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2023
This is her place to retreat inward with her sheep to create prose that enlightens us and products that feed us.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 16, 2023
Patrick Carone, a former editor at Abercrombie’s quarterly magazine, enlightens viewers on the concept of a mall: “Imagine, like, a search engine that you could walk through.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2022
But it thrives as an autonomous sphere, and as I age, it’s increasingly the one that succors, enlarges, and enlightens me most, when I have the energy and presence to bring to it.
From Slate ● Dec. 20, 2019
“You are like he was,” Keith enlightens me, “and just like him, you were most likely to die the same way—a quarter of what you could have been....”
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
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It also revealed that I’ve been fibbing to myself: Much as I consider myself enlightened, being unmanly in an era that worships machismo does bug me a little.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened hasn’t led to safe or positive outcomes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
You know, if everybody has the same idea and the same belief, we’re never going to learn anything, we’re never going to be enlightened to anything beyond ourselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
“Are our moneyed men less enlightened to their own interest, or less enterprising in the pursuit?,” the future Treasury secretary wrote External link in 1780.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
If Clausewitz’s dictum is so subtle, complex, and misunderstood, how is the reader being enlightened by being told it is false?
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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This columnist’s three years in the trenches were the toughest yet most enlightening three years of my career.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Yes, a book about the history of the bond market can be entertaining and enlightening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Nevertheless, it’s an enlightening read in light of how dramatically war has changed in the last two-and-a-half centuries.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
"Together, these records offer a more complex and enlightening account of the Revolution, showing how its consequences were felt far beyond the Thirteen Colonies," Cunningham added.
From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026
I am writing this book in the hope of enlightening readers about the journey an African-American takes in having to grow up and live under the laws and traditions of oppression.
From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals
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Vocabulary lists containing enlighten
"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 14–18
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Ronald Reagan, "Tear Down This Wall" (1987)
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The Titan's Curse
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