The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word DARK AGES
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
D
A
R
K
A
G
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S
More clues leading to the result DARK AGES
- Unproductive time lost in eg Dakar, capital of Senegal
- Period silver, English, in chests under diamonds
- Some French seizing ship with silver in a time of barbarity?
- Old man raves about king in early medieval period
- Egad! Ark’s relaunched before second part of European history
- A long time after ‘Lights Out’?
- Ignorant period without Sun and Times?
- Daytime was no different during this era
- King with silver engaged in risks in unenlightened times
- Some Parisian keeping chest with silver for stagnant times
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "unenlightened times" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case unenlightened times = dark ages.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.