Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Unable to read and write.
- adj. Having little or no formal education.
- adj. Marked by inferiority to an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature.
- adj. Violating prescribed standards of speech or writing.
- adj. Ignorant of the fundamentals of a given art or branch of knowledge: musically illiterate. See Usage Note at literate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Ignorant of letters or books; having little or no learning; unlettered; uncultivated: as, the illiterate part of the population; an illiterate tribe. In census statistics and educational works illiterate is used in the specific sense of unable to read; but in common use it implies only a notable or boorish want of culture, a person unable to read being said to be totally illiterate.
- Showing illiteracy or want of culture; rude; barbarous.
- Synonyms Unlettered, Unlearned, etc. See ignorant.
- n. An illiterate person; one unable to read or to write.
Wiktionary
- adj. Unable to read and write.
- adj. Having less than an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature, or having little formal education.
- adj. Not conforming to prescribed standards of speech or writing.
- n. an illiterate person, one not able to read.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Unable to read or write; ignorant of letters or books; unlettered; uninstructed; uneducated.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person unable to read
- adj. not able to read or write
- adj. lacking culture, especially in language and literature
- adj. uneducated in the fundamentals of a given art or branch of learning; lacking knowledge of a specific field
Etymologies
- Recorded in English since 1556, from Latin illitteratus 'unlearned, ignorant', itself from in- 'un-' + litteratus, literally "furnished with letters" (from littera 'letter, character') (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Latin illīterātus : in-, not; see in-1 + līterātus, literate; see literate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Sending computers won't do much at all if people are illiterate never mind *computer illiterate* and starving.”
“To be religiously illiterate is to short-change one's self and society.”
The Huffington Post: John L. Esposito: Obama's Trip to India: Sikhs Are Not Muslims
“Is English not your mother tongue or are you just plain illiterate?”
Think Progress » Clinton: If Obama Offers Peace Plan, ‘I Will Support It’
“Being internet illiterate is not meant to label them as bad or stupid people – on the contrary they are just ignorant of how to use technology for their own benefit.”
AOL Search Data Shows Users Planning to commit Murder. « The Paradigm Shift
“When I expressed surprise that any one should be content to remain illiterate she laughed good-naturedly and told me that she could make the money to pay her many employees who looked after her business affairs.”
“- The number of absolutely illiterate is equal to about seventeen percent, while not more than ten percent have the advantage of a good common school education.”
“As men and ministers, they did not enjoy the literary advantages of the present age; but if they were what refined scholarship would term illiterate, they were nevertheless well instructed in a practical sense in the doctrines of the righteous government of the great Sovereign of heaven.”
“You know I am homo unius linguae: in English, illiterate, a dunce, a ninny.”
The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb
“Then there is a question of the trainees; the Afghan population is 70% illiterate and, of course, the illiterate are the most likely to sign up for these security positions.”
“Generally I don't like to talk about things like that, but after I read the news tonight and found out that the American congress have voted to admit defeat to a bunch of rag-tag illiterate camel jockeys, I figured it doesn't matter what I say or do to America, it's not like they have any will whatsoever to fight back.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘illiterate’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, approbation, orator, peroration, Cicero, eloquence, elocution, rhetoric, premeditate, plead, Isocrates and 264 more...
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funny & derogatory
WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
funny derogatory names, quotes, phrases.
( open list, randomness, ad hom, ad hominem )
also see:
buttfucking quitter, dirty sanchez, donkey punch, falcon punch, assbadger, unicorn turd, assclown, fudgenut, quackery, friggin homo, buttmuncher, jackwagon and 271 more... -
Daily
Words picked up as I go
kaleidoscopic, illiterate, fie, dehisce, shiester, amalgamation, immunodeficiency, coup d'état, fascism, platitudinous, xenophobia, sanctimonious and 4 more...
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Vocab.5
adequate, administer, agitate, capitulate, citrus, disrupt, hovel, illiterate, indifferent, menial, permanent, respite and 3 more...
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Unwording
Outlawed words and books, like this.
samizdat, satanic verses, profanity, oriental, antilanguage, biddy, aviatrix, squaw, deaf-mute, border patrolman, cassandra, niggardly and 45 more...
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Excuses
Plausible, predictable, or far-fetched.
dog ate it, wardrobe malfunction, plumb forgot, headache, meteor shower, burning butterfly, egged from a scho..., had to wash sheets, had a manicure ac..., not tonight - the..., my hemorrhoids ar..., hyperactive spam ... and 35 more...
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Vocab5
adequate, administer, agitate, capitulate, citrus, disrupt, hovel, illiterate, indifferent, menial, permanent, respite and 3 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
english words
all words that were put in the dictations training
hush, grapevine, whispered, wounded, widespread, upwards, illiterate, bureau, crosier, praise, rape, bail
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the name of the rose
pleasing words I encounter whilst reading umberto eco's novel of the same name.
matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, nones, vespers, compline, usurper, simoniac, heresiarch, malefactor and 230 more...
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Lesson 5 Vocab.
adequate, administer, agitate, capitulate, citrus, disrupt, hovel, illiterate, indifferent, menial, permanent, respite and 3 more...
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lesson5
adequate, administer, agitate, capitulate, citrus, disrupt, hovel, illiterate, indifferent, menial, permanent, respite and 3 more...
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Vocabulary 5
adequate, administer, agitate, capitulate, citrus, disrupt, hovel, illiterate, indifferent, menial, permanent, respite and 3 more...
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lesson 5
urgent, toil, strenuous, respite, permanent, menial, indifferent, illiterate, hovel, disrupt, citrus, capitulate and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for illiterate.
fbharjo Where's the illaqueate? (or is an illapse called for?) Feb 25, 2012
oroboros Some one who's sick of reading? (From Wiley's Dictionary - B.C. cartoon 2/25/12) Feb 25, 2012
hugobeng uncultured or poorly educated: as in unable to distiguish betweeen 'word' and 'phrase,' or 'name' Sep 20, 2008