Ignorance

How to spell ignorance

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ignorance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ignorance mean?

1. nounA lack of knowledge, information, or awareness about something.

Ignorance in a sentence

• His ignorance of the new tax rules cost him a substantial fine.

• The report blamed the accident on widespread ignorance of the safety procedures.

Where does ignorance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin ignorantia, meaning 'a lack of knowledge', which was built on the verb ignorare, 'not to know' or 'to take no notice of'. That verb itself was formed from the negative prefix in-, meaning 'not', joined to the root of gnoscere or noscere, 'to know' or 'to come to know'; the same ancient root sits behind English words like 'know', 'notice', and 'cognition'. English borrowed the noun through Old French ignorance during the 1200s, keeping the soft -ance ending that French had developed from the Latin -antia. A useful spelling reminder is that the 'g' is silent yet essential, a leftover of the old gn- 'knowing' element, which is also why the related verb 'ignore' keeps that same unpronounced 'g'. The word has always carried the plain sense of simply not knowing something, rather than the harsher modern overtone of wilful refusal to learn.

How the word is built

• i- (from in-, 'not')
• gnor- (from gnoscere/noscere, 'to know')
• -ance (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)