ignorant
ignorant Lexical Profile
ignorant Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Lacking general knowledge, education, or intellectual sophistication.
"Many early reformers sought to establish public schools so that citizens would no longer remain ignorant and easily exploited."
Lacking awareness or knowledge of a particular fact, circumstance, or subject (usually followed by 'of' or 'about').
"The tourists were completely ignorant of the local customs regarding appropriate dress inside historic temples."
Discourteous, rude, or insensitive to others (informal).
"It was rather ignorant of him to interrupt the speaker repeatedly without waiting for the question-and-answer session."
Word Nuance & Usage
While 'ignorant' strictly means lacking knowledge or awareness of something, in casual usage it is often conflated with 'stupid' or used to mean rude and inconsiderate. When describing someone's lack of knowledge about a specific topic (e.g., 'ignorant of the law'), it is neutral, whereas applying it broadly to a person carries a strong pejorative connotation.
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 14th century from Old French ignorant and directly from Latin ignorantem, the present participle of ignorare ('not to know, to disregard'), formed from in- ('not') and gnarus ('aware, acquainted with'), from the Proto-Indo-European root *gno- ('to know').