Dictionary

enlightener en · NOUN

Etymology

From enlighten + -er.

Meanings

1. One who, or that which, enlightens.
   • The heart entirely engrossed by one, is the last to suspect it can be the object of preference to another. Vanity, the great enlightener on such subjects, is here lost in a more powerful feeling. She never thought of Mr. Spenser in any other character than as a pleasant acquaintance. 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 271–272:
2. One who, or that which, enlightens. ▸ A thinker of the Age of Enlightenment.
   • The French enlightener Jean-François Marmontel […] 1982, Critical Essays, page 121:

Forms