ignorance

ig·no·rance (ig′nə rəns)

noun

Etymology: OFr < L ignorantia

Lack of specific knowledge
unawareness, unconsciousness, unfamiliarity, incomprehension, bewilderment, incapacity, inexperience, simplicity, disregard, obliviousness, insensitivity, sciolism, nescience, shallowness, superficiality, confusion, fog, vagueness, half-knowledge, a little learning, no more than a tyro's background, greenness; see also sense 2, confusion 2.
Antonyms ability*, learning*, erudition. *
Lack of general knowledge
illiteracy, unenlightenment, mental incapacity, denseness, dumbness, empty-headedness, crudeness, barbarism, philistinism, vulgarity, obtuseness, unfamiliarity, unintelligence, rawness, benightedness, superstition, darkness, blindness, simplicity, innocence, stolidity, unscholarliness, functional illiteracy, know-nothingism, lack of learning, lack of education, lack of erudition, lack of information; see also sense 1, stupidity 1.
Antonyms knowledge*, acquaintance*, understanding.

Preposition: of

scripture: But her manifest ignorance of scripture is a matter that I do think worthy of comment.
law: Posted by Blue Witch on 2 June, 2004 at 10:39 AM Ray, ignorance of the law has never been an acceptable defense.
fact: The original decision was made in ignorance of a material fact.
psychology: Ignorance of dynamic psychology is no defense against abreaction.
reality: Ignorance of realities can never be eradicated by merely thinking about them.
economics: As Nozick noted, Marxist exploitation is mainly exploitation of people's ignorance of economics.

Converse of object

feign: It is astonishing that a Canadian immigration official should have feigned ignorance of this.
plead: Some administrators may have pleaded ignorance post A day due to the delay in HM Revenue & Customs getting the Online system working.
profess: The point is that they were made by the same teachers who had earlier professed almost complete ignorance of Protestant schools.
betray: To maintain that they must intervene is to betray ignorance of the elementary principles of prophetic interpretation.
dispel: The only way we are going to dispel ignorance is through education.
confess: Others may know, but Land-Care confesses ignorance, as to how the judge leading the inquiry ( Lord Hutton ) was appointed.

Adjective modifier

blissful: He could see outside, everyone moving around them in blissful ignorance, unable to see what was happening.
inexcusable: I delight in his lack of patience with everyone from students to politicians who demonstrate inexcusable ignorance, incompetence or obfuscation.
wilful: The first is almost complete and often wilful ignorance of anything that has happened in Church history.
woeful: This tablet exposes woeful ignorance of the art of lettering.
willful: What really astounds me, tho, is the apparently willful ignorance and short-sightedness of the various experiments devised by their vivisectors.
widespread: But the fact you could hear the band above the voices suggested widespread ignorance of the words.

Modifies a noun

probability: In most other theories, the probabilities of observations for an individual are thought of as ` ` ignorance probabilities ' ' .
cannot: Such as are enveloped in ignorance cannot give God a reasonable service.

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