IGNORANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ignorance mean? 

• IGNORANCE (noun)
  The noun IGNORANCE has 1 sense:

1. the lack of knowledge or education

  Familiarity information: IGNORANCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IGNORANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The lack of knowledge or education

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("ignorance" is a kind of...):

cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ignorance"):

ignorantness; nescience; unknowing; unknowingness (ignorance (especially of orthodox beliefs))

inexperience; rawness (lack of experience and the knowledge and understanding derived from experience)

unenlightenment (a lack of understanding)

illiteracy (ignorance resulting from not reading)

Derivation:

ignorant (uneducated in general; lacking knowledge or sophistication)

ignorant (unaware because of a lack of relevant information or knowledge)

ignore (be ignorant of or in the dark about)

 Context examples 

She could almost be angry herself at such angry incivility; but she checked the resentful sensation; she remembered her own ignorance.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The evil lies yet deeper: in her total ignorance, unsuspiciousness of there being such feelings; in a perversion of mind which made it natural to her to treat the subject as she did.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr. Hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden turn, it was his knowledge.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He did not know what "English" meant, but he made a mental note of that item of ignorance and passed on.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A degradation to illegitimacy and ignorance, to be married to a respectable, intelligent gentleman-farmer!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I think she would be happier in our own home, with her daily tasks to interest her, than in being here amongst us and in ignorance.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“You are much mistaken if you expect to influence me by such a paltry attack as this. I see nothing in it but your own wilful ignorance and the malice of Mr. Darcy.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The context convinces me, however, that you have sinned rather through ignorance and tactlessness than through malice, so I am content to pass the matter by.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could not forbear shaking my head, and smiling a little at his ignorance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

You need not say anything more of your ignorance.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)