ILLITERATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does illiterate mean? 

• ILLITERATE (noun)
  The noun ILLITERATE has 1 sense:

1. a person unable to read

  Familiarity information: ILLITERATE used as a noun is very rare.

• ILLITERATE (adjective)
  The adjective ILLITERATE has 3 senses:

1. not able to read or write

2. uneducated in the fundamentals of a given art or branch of learning; lacking knowledge of a specific field

3. lacking culture, especially in language and literature

  Familiarity information: ILLITERATE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ILLITERATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person unable to read

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

illiterate; illiterate person; nonreader

Hypernyms ("illiterate" is a kind of...):

ignoramus; know nothing; uneducated person (an ignorant person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "illiterate"):

analphabet; analphabetic (an illiterate person who does not know the alphabet)

functional illiterate (a person with some ability to read and write but not enough for daily practical needs)

• ILLITERATE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not able to read or write

Similar:

analphabetic; unlettered (having little acquaintance with writing)

functionally illiterate (having reading and writing skills insufficient for ordinary practical needs)

preliterate (not yet having acquired the ability to read and write)

semiliterate (barely able to read and write)

semiliterate (able to read but not to write)

Also:

uneducated (not having a good education)

Attribute:

literacy (the ability to read and write)

Antonym:

literate (able to read and write)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Uneducated in the fundamentals of a given art or branch of learning; lacking knowledge of a specific field

Synonyms:

ignorant; illiterate

Context example:

he is musically illiterate

Similar:

uneducated (not having a good education)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacking culture, especially in language and literature

Antonym:

literate (versed in literature; dealing with literature)

 Context examples 

Now I am twenty-eight and am in reality more illiterate than many schoolboys of fifteen.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Dear affectionate creature! You banished to Abbey-Mill Farm! You confined to the society of the illiterate and vulgar all your life!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Could he ever be tolerably happy with Lucy Steele; could he, were his affection for herself out of the question, with his integrity, his delicacy, and well-informed mind, be satisfied with a wife like her—illiterate, artful, and selfish?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It was a hotchpotch of illiterate abuse of Martin, and of assertion that the so- called Martin Eden who was selling stories to magazines was no writer at all, and that in reality he was stealing stories from old magazines, typing them, and sending them out as his own.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And this invention would certainly have taken place, to the great ease as well as health of the subject, if the women, in conjunction with the vulgar and illiterate, had not threatened to raise a rebellion unless they might be allowed the liberty to speak with their tongues, after the manner of their forefathers; such constant irreconcilable enemies to science are the common people.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And I have no doubt that he will thrive, and be a very rich man in time—and his being illiterate and coarse need not disturb us.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Lucy was naturally clever; her remarks were often just and amusing; and as a companion for half an hour Elinor frequently found her agreeable; but her powers had received no aid from education: she was ignorant and illiterate; and her deficiency of all mental improvement, her want of information in the most common particulars, could not be concealed from Miss Dashwood, in spite of her constant endeavour to appear to advantage.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)