enlighten
Example Sentences
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Its narrative offers few character sketches, jumps around in time and digresses into subjects that distract more than they enlighten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 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
If you’re wondering what the Jane’s Addiction split and Walt Whitman’s groundbreaking “Leaves of Grass” have in common, allow rocker Dave Navarro to enlighten you.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2024
Because I break bread with and claim to be part of this marked construct, this otherness, complete with jail time within the carceral state, allow me to enlighten you.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 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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He thought about the country’s anger, prejudice and the way the news batters more than enlightens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2023
What it shows us, what it leaves out and which important opportunities it misses are more concerning, all of which are why this hour disappoints more than it enlightens or activate the viewer.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2021
Poverty casts a dark shadow, while love enlightens the ambience.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2019
Must-see TV: When They See Us, Ava DuVernay’s miniseries about the lives at the heart of the Central Park Five, informs and enlightens audiences—but as Willa Paskin reviews, entertainment is not its core purpose.
From Slate ● May 30, 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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Phenomenal amounts of self-righteous bloviating about enlightened or benighted child-feeding have gone on for centuries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 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
Quite poorly educated, quite easily misled, perhaps less than enlightened.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026
His was considered a modern, enlightened prison, despite its Victorian chill.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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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
"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
Alexander said: "It was the single most enlightening conversation I've had in the last month on trade so I see why you hold him in such high regard."
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
He argues, in this entertaining and enlightening book, that the spirit—the fire—that drove the Founding Fathers to risk everything to establish something very new has animated this country ever since.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026
During his voyage around the world, his encounters with natives had been startling and enlightening.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
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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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