unlettered

Rendered on the page in glyph-laden phonetic spellings that are apt to confound the unlettered, these words take wing when released into sound.

In this tribal village, most parents are unlettered and unable to help their young children study at home.

Federal Judge Elmer Dundy ruled that “the Indian is a ‘person’ ” under the Constitution — but not without also referring to Native Americans as a “weak, insignificant, unlettered, and generally despised race.”

He was not an unlettered man: In his years at school, Calhoun had written a master’s thesis on the historiography of Napoleon’s peninsular war and had attended a law seminar in Belgium.

“He suffers the pangs of poverty of intellect. His perception is clouded. . . . He’s an empty-headed, long-eared, bleary-eyed, awkward, untutored, unlettered, hopeless misprint.”