illiterate

American  

[ih-lit-er-it] / ɪˈlɪt ər ɪt /

adjective

1. unable to read and write.

   an illiterate group.

2. having or demonstrating very little or no education.

3. showing lack of culture, especially in language and literature.

4. displaying a marked lack of knowledge in a particular field.

   He is musically illiterate.

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noun

• illiterates
  plural

1. an illiterate person.

illiterate British  

/ ɪˈlɪtərɪt /

adjective

1. unable to read and write

2. violating accepted standards in reading and writing

   an illiterate scrawl

3. uneducated, ignorant, or uncultured

   scientifically illiterate

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noun

1. an illiterate person

Synonym Usage

See ignorant.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• illiteracy
  noun
• illiterateness
  noun
• semi-illiterateness
  noun
• semi-illiterate
  adjective
• illiterately
  adverb
• semi-illiterately
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• illiterates
  plural

Etymology

Origin of illiterate

First recorded in 1550–60, illiterate is from the Latin word illiterātus unlettered. See il- ², literate

Explanation

You can describe a person unable to read or write as illiterate. Karaoke, which involves singing out the words to songs as they scroll across a big screen, requires the ability to read. If you’re illiterate, you won’t be able to participate. Illiterate, from the Latin illiteratus “unlearned, ignorant,” can describe someone unable to read or write, but it can also imply that a person lacks cultural awareness. However, Walt Whitman saw a unique beauty to illiteracy: “There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

illiterate illiterates

The father of four girls said "stopping at the sixth grade" will leave them effectively "illiterate" for the demands of "the 21st century".

From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026

In this adaptation, Anna Bowden had been Cady’s defense attorney, and he’s no longer an illiterate rube but a successful restaurateur who was convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

In her second term, she introduced a constitutional amendment to reserve 45 seats in the legislature for female MPs, and worked to educate young women - in a country where 70% of them were illiterate.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025

Because so many incoming students were numerically illiterate, the university added a remedial class for middle- and elementary-school math.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025

I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

Poetry — which prompts you with rhymes — is far easier to memorize than prose, so even illiterates could hear it and pass it along.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2020

Carlson at one point complained about “the illiterates posing as political analysts on your TV,” presumably on rival networks.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 3, 2020

The unintended consequences of do-goodism by cultural illiterates.

From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2018

Thus, contract laborers were excluded in 1885, immoral persons and anarchists in 1903, and illiterates in 1917.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2016

The number of illiterates by the census of 1870 above the age of ten years, in round numbers, was 5,500,000.

From The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877 by Various

Related Words

• ignorant
• uneducated