illiterate

Meanings

Adjective

• not knowing how to read and write
• Unable to read and write.
• Having less than an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature, or having little formal education.
• Not conforming to prescribed standards of speech or writing.
• Ignorant in a specified way or about a specified subject.

Noun

• An illiterate person, one either not able to read and write or not knowing how.
• A person ignorant about a given subject.

Related

Similar words

• analphabetic
• ignorant
• unlettered
• analphabet

Opposite words

• literate

Origin

• Recorded in English since 1556, from Latin illitteratus, itself from in- + litteratus (from littera).