unlettered

[uhn-let-erd]

adjective

1. not educated; uneducated; untutored; ignorant.

2. not literate; illiterate.

3. not marked with letters, as a tombstone.

unlettered

/ ʌnˈlɛtəd /

adjective

1. uneducated; illiterate

2. not marked with letters

   an unlettered tombstone

Word History and Origins

Origin of unlettered¹

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; un- ¹, lettered

Synonym Study

See ignorant.

Example Sentences

Rendered on the page in glyph-laden phonetic spellings that are apt to confound the unlettered, these words take wing when released into sound.

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In this tribal village, most parents are unlettered and unable to help their young children study at home.

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Federal Judge Elmer Dundy ruled that “the Indian is a ‘person’ ” under the Constitution — but not without also referring to Native Americans as a “weak, insignificant, unlettered, and generally despised race.”

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He was not an unlettered man: In his years at school, Calhoun had written a master’s thesis on the historiography of Napoleon’s peninsular war and had attended a law seminar in Belgium.

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“He suffers the pangs of poverty of intellect. His perception is clouded. . . . He’s an empty-headed, long-eared, bleary-eyed, awkward, untutored, unlettered, hopeless misprint.”

Read more on Washington Post

Related Words

• illiterate 
• innocent 
• naive 
• oblivious 
• obtuse 
• uneducated 
• uninformed