Ignorant

How to spell ignorant

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ignorant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ignorant mean?

1. adjectiveLacking knowledge, awareness, or education about something.
2. adjectiveRude or discourteous, especially through a lack of consideration for others.

Ignorant in a sentence

• Many voters remain ignorant of how the new tax rules will affect them.

• It was ignorant of him to walk off while she was still speaking.

• He admitted he was completely ignorant about basic car maintenance.

• The waiter was so ignorant that the family left without ordering.

Where does ignorant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin ignorantem, the present-participle form of ignorare, which meant 'not to know' or 'to take no notice of'. That verb was built from the negative prefix in-, meaning 'not', joined to the root gnoscere or noscere, meaning 'to know' or 'to recognise'. English took it in through Old French during the late 1300s, keeping the sense of lacking knowledge or being uninformed. The very same gnoscere root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'recognise', 'cognition', and 'note', all touching on the idea of knowing. The spelling trap is the silent middle: writers reach for the -ent ending heard in many adjectives, but ignorant takes -ant, and the single 'r' before it must not be doubled.

How the word is built

• i- (from in-: not)
• gnor (from gnoscere/noscere: to know)
• -ant (adjective suffix)