Adjective "illiterate" definition and examples




Definitions and examples


Unable to read or write.
  1. 'I was illiterate, unable to interact with people socially.'
  2. 'His mother, apparently illiterate, was unable to sign her name as a witness to his marriage.'
  3. 'Later the journalist was told by his interpreter that the ‘warlord’ was wholly illiterate, unable even to sign his own name in writing.'
  4. 'Do they really think horror fans are so illiterate they won't read subtitles?'
  5. 'Men, women, and children attended these compulsory classes, and hundreds of thousands of illiterate Iraqis learned to read.'
  6. 'It's even read to illiterate factory labourers while they work.'
  7. 'In Uganda, among those aged fifteen years and over, about 50 percent are illiterate (unable to read or write).'
  8. 'In addition, many South Africans were illiterate, and unable to read news reports of proceedings.'
  9. 'Back in the 1830s, when he was a boy of 11, he used to read to illiterate London labourers during his lunch hours.'
  10. 'Children were not allowed to attend public schools and many were illiterate; reading and writing being ‘unnatural’ technologies that would corrupt the children.'
  11. 'the extent to which voters are politically illiterate'
  12. 'Indeed, as I have wondered elsewhere, how long will Americans endure the arrogance and ignorance of their own technically illiterate politicians?'
  13. 'the ignorant, illiterate Town Council'
  14. 'We keep them in power, and they keep us illiterate, ignorant and prolific.'
  15. 'You have to ask yourself whether an illiterate country girl, ignorant in city ways, would have such a self-consciously literary mode of expressing herself.'
  16. 'as you can see, I have corrected your misspelt, illiterate letter'
  18. 'Then he disparaged my writing for being too illiterate for some but too literate for others.'


A person who is unable to read or write.
  1. 'India has the majority of the world's illiterates - nearly 500 million.'
  3. 'In India out of about 428 million illiterates 275 million are women.'
  4. 'Everything is falling into the hands of the already-haves, even when it comes to resettling the landless, the qualifying criteria is to fool the illiterates who keep on applying to no avail for the sake of formality.'
  5. 'Without history you find yourself like illiterates who can't read the present.'
  6. 'Think about it - when I was small, there were 4,000 illiterates for every middle-school student.'
  7. 'There were illiterates in Dickens and George Eliot.'
  8. 'The Merovingian kings were not boorish illiterates, but were able to read and write.'
  9. 'He says with a hint of anguish that more than literates, it is the so-called illiterates who are forthright and capable of accepting challenges.'
  10. 'Automatons, illiterates and indigents of every shape and size, don't stop but aid this cruel crusade participate in their own demise.'


1. unable to read and write: an illiterate group.

2. having or demonstrating very little or no education.



5. an illiterate person.

More examples(as adjective)

"boths can be illiterate at times."

"people can be illiterate."

"voters can be illiterate."

"peasants can be illiterate."

"labourers can be illiterate."

More examples++


Late Middle English: from Latin illitteratus, from in- ‘not’ + litteratus (see literate).


functionally illiterate