enlightening

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

enlightening
    adj 1: tending to increase knowledge or dissipate ignorance; "an
           enlightening glimpse of government in action"; "an
           illuminating lecture" [syn: {enlightening},
           {informative}, {illuminating}] [ant: {unenlightening},
           {unilluminating}]
    2: enlightening or uplifting so as to encourage intellectual or
       moral improvement; "the paintings in the church served an
       edifying purpose even for those who could not read" [syn:
       {edifying}, {enlightening}] [ant: {unedifying},
       {unenlightening}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

enlightening \enlightening\ adj.
   1. enlightening so as to encourage intellectual or moral
      improvement.

   Syn: edifying.
        [WordNet 1.5]

   2. tending to increase knowledge or dissipate ignorance; as,
      an enlightening glimpse of government in action.
      [WordNet 1.5]

64 Moby Thesaurus words for "enlightening": advisory, allegorizing, annotative, autodidactic, brightening, broadening, clarifying, coeducational, communicative, critical, cultural, demonstrative, demythologizing, didactic, disabusing, disciplinary, disenchanting, disillusionary, disillusioning, disillusive, edifying, editorial, educating, educational, educative, elucidative, euhemeristic, exegetic, exemplificative, exhortatory, explaining, explanatory, explicative, explicatory, expositive, expository, glossarial, homiletic, hortatory, illuminant, illuminating, illuminative, illumining, illustrative, informational, informative, informing, initiatory, instructive, introductory, lecturing, lightening, lighting, monitory, preaching, preceptive, propaedeutic, rationalistic, rationalizing, scholiastic, self-teaching, teaching, tuitionary, undeceiving