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
- Middle English, from Latin illīterātus : in-, not; see in-1 + līterātus, literate; see literate.
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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funny & derogatory
WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
funny derogatory names, quotes, phrases.
( randomness, ad hom, ad hominem )buttfucking quitter, dirty sanchez, donkey punch, falcon punch, assbadger, unicorn turd, assclown, fudgenut, quackery, friggin homo, buttmuncher, jackwagon and 154 more...
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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...
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