illiterate
/ɪˈlɪt(ə)rət
/adjective
1Unable to read or write: his parents were illiterate...
- In Uganda, among those aged fifteen years and over, about 50 percent are illiterate (unable to read or write).
- Children were not allowed to attend public schools and many were illiterate; reading and writing being ‘unnatural’ technologies that would corrupt the children.
- In addition, many South Africans were illiterate, and unable to read news reports of proceedings.
Synonyms
unable to read or write, unlettered, analphabetic, functionally illiterate
1.1 [with submodifier] Ignorant in a particular subject or activity: the extent to which voters are politically illiterate...
- Couple a scientifically illiterate public with activist groups well-versed in scare tactics and what do you get?
- Indeed, as I have wondered elsewhere, how long will Americans endure the arrogance and ignorance of their own technically illiterate politicians?
- That they were able to do so handily and with a backward and politically illiterate film star as their standard bearer only underscores the dimensions of the Democratic collapse.
Synonyms
ignorant, unknowledgeable, uneducated, untaught, unschooled, untutored, untrained, uninstructed, uninformed, unlearned, unread, unenlightened, benighted, backward
literary nescient
1.2(Of a piece of writing) showing a lack of education; badly written: as you can see, I have corrected your misspelt, illiterate letter...
- Then he disparaged my writing for being too illiterate for some but too literate for others.
- Even in 1935 they were being sent an ‘astonishing amount of illiterate and unintelligent writing’, but practised readers spent little time on it.
- Is it any wonder that our K - 12 education system is in such bad shape when such an illiterate, antiquated report has been circulated and used for more than a decade?
noun
A person who is unable to read or write.This reminds me of a quote from Italo Calvino (who was most certainly literate): ‘The ratio of literacy to illiteracy is constant, but now the illiterates can read.’...
- Without history you find yourself like illiterates who can't read the present.
- The Merovingian kings were not boorish illiterates, but were able to read and write.
Phrases
functionally illiterate
Derivatives
illiterately
- But, as usual, Jack displayed the irony of his many advanced education degrees and illiterately misread the map.
- They tell their own story, simply; sometimes ungrammatically and illiterately, but nevertheless irresistibly.
- The degree of hateful violence expressed here by the anti-hunters, albeit nearly illiterately, is frightening.
illiterateness
/ noun ...- I even make fun of her illiterateness on trains.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin illitteratus, from in- 'not' + litteratus (see literate).
Rhymes
- a tempest in a teapot
- a tempo
- atemporal
- atemporality
- Aten
- atenolol
- ater
- A-test
- at every turn
- ATF
- at fault
- at first
- at first blush
- at first glance
- at first hand
- at first instance
- at first sight
- (at) full blast
- at full cock
- service mark
- service member
- service module
- service pack
- service provider
- servicer