illiterate
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Not able to read or write.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihliteruhtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈlɪtɚət
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Not able to read or write
Unable to read and write.
Having less than an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature, or having little formal education.
Lacking culture, especially in language and literature
Ignorant in a specified way or about a specified subject.
Not conforming to prescribed standards of speech or writing.
noun
An illiterate person, one either not able to read and write or not knowing how.
A person unable to read
A person ignorant about a given subject. (The relevant subject is usually named as a noun adjunct.)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not able to read or write
Used this way, illiterate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: not able to read or write
Antonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.