illiterate person
- noun
- /ɪˈlɪtərət ˈpɜrsən/
- Organizations aim to reduce the number of illiterate people through community literacy programs and adult education.
- more illiterate persons
They taught illiterate people to read and write so that they could read the Bible.
- They taught illiterate people to read and write so that they could read the Bible.
Examples
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The Thracians were a fractious collection of powerful but illiterate people.
Academic text (2007) -
Although there may have been slight success in reducing poverty, and improvement in some areas may have been achieved, millions of people still live in dehumanizing conditions of deprivation and hopelessness, and India is still home to the world's largest share of poor and illiterate people.
Academic text (1999) -
They taught illiterate people to read and write so that they could read the Bible.
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This is in apprehension of the increasing number of illiterate persons in Africa.
Academic text (2006) -
The NGOs have gone; almost all the population is illiterate, people are unemployed, and have no means of earning their bread.
Blog text (5) -
After learning that there are more than 770 million illiterate people in the world and over 300 million children who are not enrolled in school, and ninety-eight percent of these children live in Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, she wanted to help change those statistics.
Blog text (3) -
Elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, illiterate people have even used ethnographies for magic and prayer (Gewertz and Errington 1991:153).
Academic text (2001) -
Nonprofits work to improve the lives of illiterate people by providing free education and resources.
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In many developing countries, an illiterate person faces significant challenges in securing employment.
Synonyms
A person who cannot read or write
A person who cannot read or write
A person who cannot read or write
A person who cannot read or reads very little
A person who cannot read or write
Antonyms
How Literate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who is unable to read or write' is directly and transparently derived from 'illiterate' (unable to read or write) combined with 'person' (a human individual). This ADJ+NOUN composition follows standard compositional rules and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the phrase.
Etymology
Illiterate person comes from the simple image of someone who does not know written letters. Illiterate means 'not knowing letters' and person means a human, so it describes someone who cannot 'read' or 'write'.