Word family noun literature literacy ≠ illiteracy illiterate literati adjective literary literate ≠ illiterate
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishilliterateil‧lit‧e‧rate1 /ɪˈlɪtərət/ adjective 1 READsomeone who is illiterate has not learned to read or write2 WRITEbadly written, in an uneducated way It was an illiterate letter, full of mistakes.3 → economically/politically/scientifically etc illiterate —illiteracy noun [uncountable]Examples from the Corpus
illiterate• According to the 1981 census, 46.5 percent of the population over the age of seventeen was illiterate.• But that did not mean that they were illiterate.• In fact, although Constanze was not such an accomplished singer as her two elder sisters, she was by no means musically illiterate.• The overwhelming majority of peasant communications were oral in nature in a society that was still largely illiterate.• These are the truly illiterate among us.• Working families moved out of public housing, and poor, illiterate blacks from the rural South poured in.• an illiterate composition• His father was an illiterate farm worker.• If 70% of the population is illiterate, how do people know who they are voting for?• Because a great many of the women are illiterate, music and drama are the best way of making an impact.• An illiterate young man, nineteen years of age, sits beside me in a restaurant and quietly surveys the menu.illiterateilliterate2 noun [countable] someone who has not learned to read or writeExamples from the Corpus
illiterate• Every adult illiterate... is an indictment of us all..• As an illiterate, he does not have the privilege of voting.• Even at the present level, direct federal allocations represent about $ 1. 65 per year for each illiterate.• Only a complete media illiterate could leap to such a conclusion.• Such abuse is the last resort of the political illiterate.• Word spread widely and quickly, through the networks, even through underground comic books where the illiterate could read them. 