illiteracy
Americannoun
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a lack of ability to read and write.
-
the state of being illiterate; lack of any or enough education.
-
a mistake in writing or speaking, felt to be characteristic of an illiterate or semiliterate person.
a letter that was full of illiteracies.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of illiteracy
First recorded in 1650–60; illiter(ate) + -acy
Explanation
Illiteracy is the inability to read. You can help someone overcome illiteracy by reading together, or even by sharing your knowledge of vocabulary. The word literacy means “the ability to read.” By adding the prefix il-, you change the meaning of the word to its opposite. Illiteracy can refer not only to the inability to read but also to a lack of knowledge in other subject areas. If you’ve never heard of Shakespeare, some people might consider you culturally illiterate.
Vocabulary lists containing illiteracy
A Raisin in the Sun
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The Kite Runner
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Workshop 1, Part 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Illiteracy is high in The Gambia so a unique voting system involving marbles is used.
From BBC • Dec. 5, 2021
Salon reached out to John Allen Paulos, the prominent mathematician and author of “Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences,” requesting a comment on the controversy.
From Salon • Feb. 2, 2016
"Illiteracy in Britain should be something our schoolchildren know only from the pages of their history books," says Dinsmore.
From The Guardian • Sep. 8, 2014
“Traditional science journalism has been gutted in recent years due to the economic downturn,” says Sheril Kirshenbaum, the co-author of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future.
From Slate • Apr. 11, 2014
Illiteracy was common enough in medieval times, but the mass of the people were by no means entirely uneducated.
From Early European History by Webster, Hutton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
