ignorant

adjective

ig·no·rant ˈig-n(ə-)rənt

: destitute of knowledge or education

an ignorant society

also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified

parents ignorant of modern mathematics

: resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence

ignorant errors

: unaware, uninformed

ignorantly adverb

ignorantness noun

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The Polite and Not-So-Polite Uses of Ignorant

Ignorant shares a root with the word ignore, one of those etymological connections which appear obvious once they are pointed out, yet remained overlooked by most. Both words come from the Latin ignorare (“to ignore, be ignorant of”). There are several meanings of ignorant, all of which are concerned with a lack of knowledge in some sense; some of these are more insulting than others, and care should be exercised before applying this word to people who you do not wish to offend. Saying “They were ignorant of most of the laws of physics” means that the people in question did not have a specific body of learning. Saying “You are an ignorant person” is possibly describing someone as primitive, crude, or uncivilized.

Choose the Right Synonym for ignorant

ignorant, illiterate, unlettered, untutored, unlearned mean not having knowledge.

ignorant may imply a general condition or it may apply to lack of knowledge or awareness of a particular thing.

an ignorant fool

ignorant of nuclear physics

illiterate applies to either an absolute or a relative inability to read and write.

much of the population is still illiterate

unlettered implies ignorance of the knowledge gained by reading.

an allusion meaningless to the unlettered

untutored may imply lack of schooling in the arts and ways of civilization.

strange monuments built by an untutored people

unlearned suggests ignorance of advanced subjects.

poetry not for academics but for the unlearned masses

Example Sentences

… the World Series of the wild-card era is the pull of a slot-machine lever, a game of chance ignorant of form. Regularly populated now with second-place clubs or flavor-of-the-month teams more than dominant regular-season franchises …

Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated, 30 Oct. 2006 That may be especially true for today's … 13-year-olds, whose own moms and dads grew up largely ignorant of car seats, bike helmets, antibacterial soaps and childproof locks …

Nancy Gibbs, Time, 8 Aug. 2005 The joke is that the film was not his work. To refer to a producer's oeuvre is, at least to me, as ignorant as to refer to the oeuvre of a stockbroker.

David Mamet, Jafsie and John Henry: Essays, 1999 He is an ignorant old racist. She was ignorant about the dangers of the drug. It was an ignorant mistake. See More

Recent Examples on the Web Gould emerged from the military with a bedrock of confidence, but ignorant of the undercurrent of physical and emotional trauma that had rewired his brain.

Will Martin, Men's Health, 9 Nov. 2022 Washington had already concluded that Iranians were too ignorant of constitutional government, too uneducated and uninformed, too backward to be able to create anything approaching a real democracy.

Reza Aslan, Time, 8 Oct. 2022 The America First slogan has been reignited in recent years, either by those ignorant of its history or by those hoping to slip its racist history back into the mainstream.

Chris Yogerst, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Sep. 2022 Over three two-hour segments, the film dispels competing myths that Americans were either ignorant of the persecution of Europe’s Jews or knew about it but responded with callousness and indifference.

Jeanne Dorin Mcdowell, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Sep. 2022 For the first time, Berlin also agreed to invest nearly €100 million into Holocaust education for the next three years, after polls found that majority of young people across the U.S. and Europe were largely ignorant of the Shoah.

Bojan Pancevski, WSJ, 15 Sep. 2022 The people around her seem both unusually familiar with and ignorant of one another.

Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2022 In Selma, [Alabama], one of the things the white power structure said was that Black people are too ignorant to march.

Anna Mulrine Grobe, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Oct. 2022 Don’t be part of the problem, the ignorant, the willingly blind.

The Indianapolis Star, 30 Sep. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ignorant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.