Illiterate

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  illiterate
       adj 1: not able to read or write [ant: {literate}]
       2: ignorant of the fundamentals of a given art or branch of
          knowledge; "ignorant of quantum mechanics"; "musically
          illiterate" [syn: {ignorant}]
       n : a person unable to read [syn: {illiterate person}, {nonreader}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  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
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  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.