illiteracy

English

Etymology

From il- +‎ literacy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɪtəɹəsi/, /ɪˈlɪt͡ʃɹəsi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

illiteracy (countable and uncountable, plural illiteracies)

1. (uncountable) The inability to read and write.

   Illiteracy is widespread in certain areas of the country.

   • 1990, Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, “Preface”, in Wines in the Wilderness: Plays by African American Women from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present, New York, N.Y.: Praeger Publishers, →ISBN, page xiv:

     The heroines of these plays speak out against intraracial biases, stereotyping, lynchmobs, illiteracy, poverty, promiscuity, self-righteousness, verbally abusive men, rape, and miscegenation. […] Without warning the doctor, she chokes the life out of her child in order to keep him safe from white lynchmobs.

   • 1994 September 4, Sheryl WuDunn, “China's Rush to Riches”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-05-26, Section 6, page 38‎^[2]:

     While some local governments ignore the illiteracy problem, others are actively campaigning to teach people to read and write. In the villages of Xiping County in Henan Province in central China, students stop visitors and ask them to read a few characters on a blackboard. Any visitor who cannot read the characters is not allowed to enter the village. This means that illiterates are effectively grounded, and in frustration many have joined the special reading classes offered in each village. Now in Xiping County, according to local officials, only 1.7 percent of those between the ages of 20 and 40 are illiterate.

2. (uncountable) The portion of a population unable to read and write, generally given as a percentage.
3. (countable) A word, phrase, or grammatical turn thought to be characteristic of an illiterate person.
4. (uncountable, by extension) Unlearnedness; the state of being ignorant or unlettered.

Quotations

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:illiteracy.

Synonyms

• analphabetism

Antonyms

• literacy

Coordinate terms

• innumeracy
• semiliteracy
• subliteracy

Derived terms

• computer illiteracy

Related terms

• aliteracy
• illiterate

Translations

inability to read and write

• Arabic: أُمِّيَّة f (ʔummiyya)
• Bulgarian: неграмотност (bg) f (negramotnost)
• Catalan: analfabetisme (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Eastern Min: 青盲牛 (chăng-màng-ngù)

  Mandarin: 文盲 (zh) (wénmáng)

• Chukchi: айгоԓяткэгыргын (ajgoḷjatkėgyrgyn)
• Czech: negramotnost f
• Danish: analfabetisme c
• Dutch: analfabetisme (nl) n
• Esperanto: analfabeteco
• Faroese: ólesi n
• Finnish: lukutaidottomuus (fi)
• French: analphabétisme (fr) m, illettrisme (fr) m, illittérature (fr) f (rare)
• Galician: analfabetismo (gl) m
• Georgian: წერა-კითხვის უცოდინრობა (c̣era-ḳitxvis ucodinroba)
• German: Analphabetismus (de) n
• Hindi: निरक्षरता (hi) f (nirakṣartā)
• Hungarian: írástudatlanság (hu), analfabetizmus (hu)
• Indonesian: buta aksara (id)
• Irish: neamhlitearthacht f
• Italian: analfabetismo (it) m
• Japanese: 非識字 (ひしきじ, hi-shikiji), 文盲 (ja) (もんもう, mon'mō)
• Kazakh: сауатсыздық (sauatsyzdyq)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: نەخوێندەواری (nexwêndewarî)

  Northern Kurdish: nexwendewarî (ku) f

• Lao: ຄວາມບໍ່ຮູ້ໜັງສື (khuām bǭ hū nang sư̄)
• Latin: analphabētismus m
• Macedonian: неписменост f (nepismenost)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: analfabetisme (no) m

  Nynorsk: analfabetisme m

• Polish: analfabetyzm (pl) m, niepiśmienność f
• Portuguese: analfabetismo m, iliteracia (pt) f
• Russian: негра́мотность (ru) f (negrámotnostʹ), безгра́мотность (ru) f (bezgrámotnostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неписменост f

  Roman: nepismenost (sh) f

• Spanish: analfabetismo (es) m
• Swedish: analfabetism (sv) c
• Tagalog: dikanulatan, kamaangan
• Telugu: నిరక్షరాస్యత (nirakṣarāsyata)

See also

• alphabetism