illiterate

1. 1

   Unable to read and write.

   • About half of the population in Ethiopia is illiterate.
2. 2

   Having less than an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature, or having little formal education.

   • He's illiterate […] Seriously, how did he get into RI?
3. 3

   Not conforming to prescribed standards of speech or writing.

   • Now (exc. in Nautical language, see b) it is only dialectal or an illiterate substitute for lie, its identity of form with the past tense of the latter no doubt accounting largely for the confusion.
4. 4

   Ignorant in a specified way or about a specified subject.

   • technologically illiterate, economically illiterate, emotionally illiterate

syn. analphabetic · ignorant · uncharactered · unlettered

ant. literate

1. 1

   An illiterate person, one either not able to read and write or not knowing how.

   • We might also provide education plus reading and writing services to adult illiterates.
2. 2

   A person ignorant about a given subject. (The relevant subject is usually named as a noun adjunct.)

   • Their government is run by business illiterates.
   • Sometimes a mathematical illiterate is called an innumerate.

syn. analphabet · analphabetic