Ignorance is not knowing something you might be expected to know. Complete ignorance, out of ignorance, ignorance of the law.
It describes a lack of information rather than a lack of intelligence, which is worth remembering because it is usually heard as an insult. Ignorance of the law is no excuse is the legal principle. Ignorance is bliss is the proverb. Note ignorant, which in British and Irish informal use also means rude; and that ignore and ignorance come from the same Latin verb and have drifted a long way apart.
1nounignoranceNot knowing something you might be expected to know.
“It was done out of ignorance rather than malice.”
ignorance is a lack of knowledge.
Latin ignorantia comes from ignorare, not to know — in-, not, plus a root meaning to know, the same as in notice and cognition. Ignoring something began as not knowing it rather than choosing not to.
Latin
ignōrantia
Old French
ignorance
Middle English
ignoraunce
English, today
ignorance
From Middle English ignoraunce, ignorance, from From Old French ignorance, from Latin ignōrantia. by surface analysis, ignor(e) + -ance.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA