ignorant - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Old French ignorant. By surface analysis, ignore + -ant.
ignorant (comparative ignoranter or more ignorant, superlative ignorantest or most ignorant)
- Unknowledgeable or uneducated; characterized by ignorance.
1664, John Tillotson, “Sermon I. The Wisdom of Being Religious. Job XXVIII. 28.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], 8th edition, London: […] T. Goodwin, B[enjamin] Tooke, and J. Pemberton, […]; J. Round […], and J[acob] Tonson] […], published 1720, →OCLC:
That man that doth not know those things which are of use and necessity for him to know, is but an ignorant man, whatever he may know besides;
1766, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 15, in The Vicar of Wakefield[1], volume I, London: F. Newbery, page 150:
The ignorant peasant, without fault, is greater than the philosopher with many; for what is genius or courage without an heart?
- Not knowing (a fact or facts), unaware (of something).
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 1:8:
For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
1677, John Dryden, The State of Innocence and Fall of Man[2], London: Henry Herringman, act II, page 14:
Eve. Somewhat forbids me, which I cannot name;
For ignorant of guilt, I fear not shame:
But some restraining thought, I know not why,
Tells me, you long should beg, I long deny.
- 1851, Walt Whitman, “Art and Artists” in Emory Holloway (editor), The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1921, Volume 1, p. 242,[3]
- […] perhaps it is sometimes the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess.
1921, John T. McCutcheon, The Restless Age[4], Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, page 179:
That night he slept the sleep of happiness, blissfully ignorant that he had placed the letters in the wrong envelopes.
- (slang) Ill-mannered, crude.
His manner was at best off-hand, at worst totally ignorant.
- (obsolete) unknown; undiscovered
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
[…] I beseech you,
If you know aught which does behove my knowledge
Thereof to be inform’d, imprison't not
In ignorant concealment.
- 1845, Robert Browning, letter addressed to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, cited in Percy Lubbock, Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Her Letters, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1906, Chapter 4, p. 106,[5]
- […] as to you, your goodness and understanding will always see to the bottom of involuntary or ignorant faults—always help me to correct them.
- Resulting from ignorance; foolish; silly.
1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
[…] his shipping—
Poor ignorant baubles!— upon our terrible seas,
Like eggshells moved upon their surges, crack’d
As easily ’gainst our rocks:
1916, Mark Twain, chapter 8, in Albert Paine, editor, The Mysterious Stranger[6], New York: Harper & Bros., page 112:
He had never felt a pain or a sorrow, and did not know what they were, in any really informing way. He had no knowledge of them except theoretically—that is to say, intellectually. And of course that is no good. One can never get any but a loose and ignorant notion of such things except by experience.
- See also Thesaurus:ignorant
characterized by ignorance
- Albanian: injorant (sq)
- Arabic: جَاهِل (jāhil)
- Armenian: տգետ (hy) (tget), անգրագետ (hy) (angraget)
- Asturian: inorante
- Azerbaijani: cahil (az)
- Bashkir: наҙан (naźan)
- Basque: ezjakin
- Belarusian: не́вуцкі (njévucki), неадукава́ны (njeadukavány), нягра́матны (njahrámatny), няпісьме́нны (njapisʹmjénny), цёмны (be) (cjómny)
- Bulgarian: негра́мотен (bg) (negrámoten), необразо́ван (bg) (neobrazóvan), неу́к (bg) (neúk)
- Catalan: ignorant (ca)
- Chinese:
- Czech: ignorantský, nevzdělaný, neznalý
- Dutch: onwetend (nl), ignorant (nl)
- Esperanto: malklera
- Finnish: tietämätön (fi), moukka (fi)
- French: ignorant (fr)
- Galician: ignorante (gl)
- Georgian: please add this translation if you can
- German: ignorant (de)
- Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐍆𐍂𐍉𐌸𐍃 (unfrōþs), 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍃 (unweis), 𐌿𐌽𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (unkunnands)
- Greek: αδαής (el) (adaḯs)
- Ancient: ἀμαθής (amathḗs)
- Hindi: अज्ञान (hi) (ajñān)
- Hungarian: tudatlan (hu), tájékozatlan (hu)
- Indonesian: bebal (id)
- Irish: ainbhiosach, aibéiseach
- Italian: ignorante (it)
- Japanese: 無知 (ja) (むち, muchi)
- Kazakh: бейхабар (beixabar)
- Khmer: ល្ងង់ខ្លៅ (lngŭəng khlaw)
- Korean: 무지하다 (ko) (mujihada), 무식하다 (ko) (musikhada), 무학하다 (muhakhada), 배운 데 없다 (bae'un de eopda), 멍청하다 (ko) (meongcheonghada) (informal)
- Kurdish:
- Latin: inscītus, ignārus
- Macedonian: не́ук (néuk), необра́зован (neobrázovan), не́писмен (népismen), непро́светен (neprósveten), негра́мотен (negrámoten) (archaic)
- Malay: jahil (ms)
- Malayalam: പാമരൻ (ml) (pāmaraṉ)
- Middle English: bestial
- Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
- Norman: innouothant (Jersey)
- Norwegian Bokmål: uvitende (no)
- Occitan: ignorant (oc)
- Old English: unġewiss
- Persian: نادان (fa) (nâdân), عامی (fa) ('âmi)
- Polish: ignorancki
- Portuguese: ignorante (pt)
- Punjabi: ਬੇਖਬਰ (bekhbar)
- Romanian: ignorant (ro)
- Russian: неве́жественный (ru) (nevéžestvennyj), необразо́ванный (ru) (neobrazóvannyj), негра́мотный (ru) (negrámotnyj), тёмный (ru) (tjómnyj)
- Scottish Gaelic: ainfhiosach, ainfhiosrach
- Slovak: nevzdelaný
- Slovene: neveden (sl)
- Spanish: ignorante (es), ignaro (es), desentendido (es), nesciente, chúntaro (es), inculto (es)
- Swedish: ovetande (sv), okunnig (sv)
- Tagalog: bano, mangmang
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: cahil (tr)
- Ukrainian: не́уцький (néucʹkyj), неосві́чений (neosvíčenyj), неодуко́ваний (neodukóvanyj), неписьме́нний (nepysʹménnyj), негра́мотний (nehrámotnyj), те́мний (uk) (témnyj)
- Vietnamese: ngu dốt (vi), dốt nát (vi), mù chữ (vi)
- Welsh: anwybodus (cy)
Translations to be checked
ignorant (plural ignorants)
- One who is ignorant.
Borrowed from Latin ignōrantem.
ignorant m or f (masculine and feminine plural ignorants)
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
ignorant
- “ignorant” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “ignorant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
- “ignorant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “ignorant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
ignorant m anim
Declension of ignorant (hard masculine animate)
- “ignorant”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
- “ignorant”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
- “ignorant”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz [Academic dictionary of foreign words] (in Czech), 1995
From Latin ignōrāns (“not knowing”).
ignorant (plural and definite singular attributive ignorante)
ignorant
ignorant c (singular definite ignoranten, plural indefinite ignoranter)
ignorant (comparative ignoranter, superlative ignorantst)
Declension of ignorant | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | ignorant | |||
inflected | ignorante | |||
comparative | ignoranter | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | ignorant | ignoranter | het ignorantst het ignorantste | |
indefinite | m./f. sing. | ignorante | ignorantere | ignorantste |
n. sing. | ignorant | ignoranter | ignorantste | |
plural | ignorante | ignorantere | ignorantste | |
definite | ignorante | ignorantere | ignorantste | |
partitive | ignorants | ignoranters | — |
From Latin ignōrantem.
ignorant (feminine ignorante, masculine plural ignorants, feminine plural ignorantes)
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
ignorant
- “ignorant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
ignorant (strong nominative masculine singular ignoranter, comparative ignoranter, superlative am ignorantesten)
Positive forms of ignorant
Comparative forms of ignorant
Superlative forms of ignorant
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /iɡˈnoː.rant/, [ɪŋˈnoːrän̪t̪]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /iɲˈɲo.rant/, [iɲˈɲɔːrän̪t̪]
ignōrant
ignōrant
ignorant m (feminine singular ignoranta, masculine plural ignorants, feminine plural ignorantas)
ignorant
ignorant m
- ignorant (person)
Learned borrowing from Latin ignōrantis.
ignorant m pers (female equivalent ignorantka)
- ignorant in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- ignorant in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Borrowed from French ignorant.
ignorant m or n (feminine singular ignorantă, masculine plural ignoranți, feminine and neuter plural ignorante)
ignòrant m (Cyrillic spelling игно̀рант)