# ignorance

Pronunciation: US say "IG-nur-uhns" /ˈɪɡ.nɚ.əns/; UK say "IG-nuh-ruhns" /ˈɪɡ.nə.ɹəns/

## Noun

1. The state of lacking knowledge or information, whether about a particular matter or through a lack of education.
   - Simple: The state of not knowing things because you never learned them or were never told.
   - _Public ignorance of basic financial concepts leaves many people vulnerable to scams._
   - _The report blamed the outbreak partly on widespread ignorance about how the disease spreads._
2. A fundamental blindness to the true nature of existence; a deep failure to perceive reality as it actually is.
   - Simple: Not being able to see or understand the deepest truth about life and the world.
   - _The sutras teach that all suffering arises from ignorance of the way things truly are._
   - _She described awakening as the moment ignorance falls away and reality appears as it is._
3. Sins committed unknowingly, through a lack of knowledge of what is right rather than through deliberate intent.
   - Simple: In religion, wrong acts that people do because they do not know any better.
   - _The congregation prayed that their ignorance might be pardoned along with their willful sins._
   - _Old Testament law prescribed different sacrifices for ignorance than for defiant transgression._

## Origin

This word came into Middle English from Old French "ignorance," which came from Latin "ignorantia." It can be seen as "ignore" plus the ending "-ance."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ignorance (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).