illiterate

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Because so many incoming students were numerically illiterate, the university added a remedial class for middle- and elementary-school math.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025

"Digital technology is an opportunity we cannot miss," she said, warning that "those who do not adapt risk becoming the illiterate of the 21st century".

From Barron's • Oct. 9, 2025

A high number of pupils at the secondary school are "functionally illiterate", meaning they have a reading age well below average when they start Year 7.

From BBC • May 21, 2025

In the novel, Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the Democratic presidential nomination to Buzz Windrip, who is described as “vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily discredited,” but wins the election in a landslide.

From Salon • May 17, 2025

How he had copied the group of letters out on a piece of brown paper; copied, as illiterate people do, every curlicue, arch, and bend in the letters, and presented it to the midwife.

From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison