illiterate

The son of a poor, illiterate peasant family, Lula worked as a peanut seller and shoe-shine boy as a child, only learning to read when he was 10 years old.

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026

He has commonly been described as illiterate, but O'Keeffe uncovered a draft of the memoir among Napier's papers that was written in Byfield's own hand.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026

Parton's extraordinarily successful book project was born of personal anguish: her own father grew up illiterate in rural Tennessee.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

An Education Department study in 2024 found that 1 in 4 young adults are functionally illiterate, even though more than half received high-school diplomas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026

This hobby, Mahmoud insisted, was taking them away from their schoolwork, and if they forsook their education for pigeons, he would be stuck with not only the birds but two illiterate sons.

From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers

Carlson at one point complained about “the illiterates posing as political analysts on your TV,” presumably on rival networks.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 3, 2020

But these illiberal cultural illiterates instead wanted curtains for the offending Elizabethan play.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 19, 2017

Thus, contract laborers were excluded in 1885, immoral persons and anarchists in 1903, and illiterates in 1917.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2016

Female illiteracy levels in India are high; indeed it is estimated that there are more female illiterates in India than in the rest of the world combined.

From Forbes ● Feb. 23, 2015

On the other hand, the veriest illiterates often startle a stranger by glib use of some word that most of us picked up in school or seldom use informally.

From Our Southern Highlanders by Horace Kephart