literate
Americanadjective
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able to read and write.
-
having or showing knowledge of literature, writing, etc.; literary; well-read.
-
characterized by skill, lucidity, polish, or the like.
His writing is literate but cold and clinical.
- Synonyms:
- knowledgeable, well-informed
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having knowledge or skill in a specified field.
Is she computer literate? The boss needs a computer‑literate assistant.
-
having an education; educated.
- Synonyms:
- knowledgeable, well-informed
noun
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a person who can read and write.
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a learned person.
adjective
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able to read and write
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educated; learned
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used to words rather than numbers as a means of expression Compare numerate
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of literate
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin līterātus, litterātus learned, scholarly. See letter 1, -ate 1
Explanation
If you're literate you can read and write, and since you're reading this, that's what you are. Literate can also mean more than just being able to read and write, but being really fluent in a field. If you're "computer literate," you know how to use a computer with ease. If you're up on the latest advances in science, you're "scientifically literate." If people describe you admiringly as literate, they think you're widely read and know a lot about lots of different fields. The opposite of literate is illiterate.
Vocabulary lists containing literate
March: Book Two
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American Street
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"Shelter" by Harlan Coben, Chapters 1–6
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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.
Fighting back by being financially literate means a steady message of pay yourself first, live within your means and think about your future self.
From MarketWatch • May 14, 2026
As comedy, the movie is feeble, and as allegory for the socioeconomically literate it is heavy-handed.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026
Her superb collection of essays gathers up relics of the old world—the literate one—to demonstrate that such treasures are worth preserving.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026
They also reported practices restricting online bookings to mornings and said that less digitally literate people find the system hard to navigate.
From BBC • Dec. 3, 2025
For instance, today almost all Japanese and Scandinavians are literate but most Iraqis are not: why did writing nevertheless arise nearly four thousand years earlier in Iraq?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
