Ignorance means not knowing something, or lacking information and understanding about a topic. When you're ignorant about how to solve a long division problem, you simply haven't learned that skill yet. When someone is ignorant of the rules of chess, they don't know how the pieces move or what the goal of the game is.

Ignorance isn't the same as stupidity. A brilliant scientist might be completely ignorant about car engines because she's never studied them. A talented musician might be ignorant of computer programming. We're all ignorant about countless things we haven't learned yet or experienced.

The tricky part is that ignorance becomes a problem when people don't realize what they don't know. If you're ignorant about a subject but act like an expert anyway, you might give bad advice or make poor decisions. This is why curious people ask questions instead of pretending to know everything.

The phrase ignorance is bliss means that sometimes not knowing about a problem makes life easier, at least temporarily. If you don't know that a big test is coming next week, you might feel more relaxed right now, but you also won't prepare for it.

The opposite of ignorance is knowledge or understanding. When you learn something new, you replace ignorance with knowledge, and that can be one of the most satisfying feelings there is.