ignorance, ignorance crasse [Fr.]; unfamiliarity, unacquaintance†;
unconsciousness &c adj.; darkness, blindness; incomprehension,
inexperience, simplicity.
unknown quantities, x, y, z.
sealed book, terra incognita, virgin soil, unexplored ground; dark
ages.
[Imperfect knowledge] smattering, sciolism†, glimmering,
dilettantism; bewilderment &c (uncertainty) 475; incapacity.
[Affectation of knowledge] pedantry; charlatanry, charlatism†;
Philister†, Philistine.
V. be ignorant &c adj.; not know &c 490; know not, know not what, know
nothing of; have no idea, have no notion, have no conception; not have
the remotest idea; not know chalk from cheese.
ignore, be blind to; keep in ignorance &c (conceal) 528.
see through a glass darkly; have a film over the eyes, have a
glimmering &c n.; wonder whether; not know what to make of &c
(unintelligibility) 519; not pretend to take upon, not take upon one
self to say.
Adj. ignorant; nescient; unknowing, unaware, unacquainted, unapprised,
unapprized†, unwitting, unweeting†, unconscious; witless, weetless†; a
stranger to; unconversant†.
uninformed, uncultivated, unversed, uninstructed, untaught,
uninitiated, untutored, unschooled, misguided, unenlightened;
Philistine; behind the age.
shallow, superficial, green, rude, empty, half-learned,
illiterate; unread, uninformed, uneducated, unlearned, unlettered,
unbookish; empty-headed, dizzy, wooly-headed; pedantic; in the dark;
benighted, belated; blinded, blindfolded; hoodwinked; misinformed; au
bout de son latin, at the end of his tether, at fault; at sea &c
(uncertain) 475; caught tripping.
unknown, unapprehended, unexplained, unascertained,
uninvestigated†, unexplored, unheard of, not perceived; concealed &c
528; novel.
Adv. ignorantly &c adj.; unawares; for anything, for aught one knows;
not that one knows.
Int. God knows, Heaven knows, the Lord knows, who knows, nobody knows.
Phr. ignorance never settles a question [Disraeli]; quantum animis
erroris inest! [Lat.] [Ovid]; small Latin and less Greek [B.
Jonson]; that unlettered small-knowing soul [Love's Labor's Lost];
there is no darkness but ignorance [Twelfth Night].