functional illiterate
1
7.6
- noun
- /ˈfʌŋkʃənl ˈɪləˌtərət/
:
analfabeto funcional
- Many companies are concerned about hiring functional illiterates who cannot read instructions properly.
Examples
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Your nephew, for all practical purposes, is a functional illiterate...
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It is this inability to code-shift that marks many functional illiterates.
Blog text (4) -
You know the election may be over, but that doesn't mean the functional illiterates got their GEDs; they still don't understand facts.
Blog text (2) -
The report revealed that a significant number of functional illiterates struggle to fill out job applications.
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Teachers often find it challenging to help functional illiterates improve their reading and writing skills.
Antonyms
How Literate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound clearly links 'functional' with 'illiterate', so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a type of illiteracy related to everyday functioning. However, the specific technical nuance—that the person can read/write to a limited extent but not well enough for practical tasks—is a specialized sense not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Functional illiterate combines functional (able to manage everyday tasks) and illiterate ('cannot read or write'). Imagine a person who can read their name but cannot read a bus timetable or fill in a form, so they are not able to use reading and writing in 'daily life'.