Search Result for "illiterate": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. a person unable to read;
[syn: illiterate, illiterate person, nonreader]


ADJECTIVE (3)

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;
- Example: "she is ignorant of quantum mechanics"
- Example: "he is musically illiterate"
[syn: ignorant, illiterate]

3. lacking culture, especially in language and literature;


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Illiterate \Il*lit"er*ate\, a. [L. illiteratus: pref. il- not + literatus learned. See In- not, and Literal.] Unable to read or write; ignorant of letters or books; unlettered; uninstructed; uneducated; as, an illiterate man, or people. Syn: Ignorant; untaught; unlearned; unlettered; unscholary. See Ignorant. -- Il*lit"er*ate*ly, adv. -- Il*lit"er*ate*ness, n. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

illiterate adj 1: not able to read or write [ant: literate] 2: uneducated in the fundamentals of a given art or branch of learning; lacking knowledge of a specific field; "she is ignorant of quantum mechanics"; "he is musically illiterate" [syn: ignorant, illiterate] 3: lacking culture, especially in language and literature [ant: literate] n 1: a person unable to read [syn: illiterate, illiterate person, nonreader]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

58 Moby Thesaurus words for "illiterate": Gothic, Philistine, barbarous, benighted, bookless, dabbler, deceived, dilettante, dunce, empty-headed, fool, functionally illiterate, grammarless, greenhorn, greeny, heathen, hoodwinked, ignoramus, ignorant, ill-educated, illiterati, know-nothing, led astray, lowbrow, middlebrow, misinformed, misinstructed, mistaught, no scholar, nonintellectual, pagan, puddinghead, rude, tenderfoot, unbooked, unbookish, unbooklearned, unbriefed, uncultivated, uncultured, unedified, uneducated, unenlightened, unerudite, unguided, uninstructed, unintellectual, unintelligentsia, unlearned, unlettered, unliterary, unread, unrefined, unscholarly, unschooled, unstudious, untaught, untutored
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

ILLITERATE. This term is applied to one unacquainted with letters. 2. When an ignorant man, unable to read, signs a deed or agreement, or makes his mark instead of a signature, and he alleges, and can provide that it was falsely read to him, he is not bound by it, in consequence of the fraud. And the same effect would result, if the deed or agreement were falsely read to a blind man, who could have read before he lost his sight, or to a foreigner who did not understand the language. For a plea of "laymen and unlettered," see Bauer v. Roth, 4 Rawle, Rep. 85 and pp. 94, 95. 3. To induce an illiterate man, by false representations and false reading, to sign a note for a greater amount than that agreed on, is indictable as a cheat. 1 Yerg. 76. Vide, generally, 2 Nels. Ab. 946; 2 Co. 3; 11 Co. 28; Moor, 148.