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Ignorant vs Impertinent - What's the difference?

ignorant | impertinent |

As adjectives the difference between ignorant and impertinent

is that ignorant is unknowledgeable or uneducated; characterized by ignorance while impertinent is insolent, ill-mannered.

As a noun impertinent is

an impertinent individual.

ignorant

English

Alternative forms

* ignoraunt (obsolete)

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Unknowledgeable or uneducated; characterized by ignorance.
  • * Tillotson
  • He that doth not know those things which are of use for him to know, is but an ignorant man, whatever he may know besides.
  • * Dryden
  • Ignorant of guilt, I fear not shame.
  • (slang) Ill-mannered, crude.
  • His manner was at best off-hand, at worst totally ignorant .
  • (obsolete) unknown; undiscovered
  • * Shakespeare
  • ignorant concealment
  • * Shakespeare
  • Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
  • Resulting from ignorance; foolish; silly.
  • * Shakespeare
  • His shipping, / Poor ignorant baubles! — on our terrible seas, / Like eggshells moved.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * ignorantly

    impertinent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • insolent, ill-mannered
  • * Tillotson
  • things that are impertinent to us
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • How impertinent that grief was which served no end!
  • irrelevant (opposite of pertinent)
  • Usage notes

    Although, historically, definition 2 was the original (derived from the French below) usage; meaning gradually changed to definition 1. More recently general usage has come to, once again, incorporate definition 2. As many older speakers will consider definition 2 incorrect, avoiding the word altogether may be advisable. The construction "not pertinent" is one possible alternative.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An impertinent individual.
  • * (Maria Edgeworth)
  • comfortably recessed from curious impertinents
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