literate means able to read and write; having literacy. Lexicurio rates it Distinctive — a strength score of 66 out of 100.
literate is pronounced /ˈlɪtəɹət/.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English litterate, borrowed from Latin lītterātus, līterātus, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix). Doublet of literato and literatus.
Displaced native Old English stæfwīs.
adj
- Able to read and write; having literacy.“Intelligence tests are biased toward the literate.”
- Knowledgeable in literature, writing; literary; well-read.“The reason literature plays a unique role in any literate culture is its longevity.”
- Which is used in writing (of a language or dialect).“The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan even commissioned an alphabetic script for his empire, to be used officially for all its literate languages, Mongolian, Chinese, Turkic and Persian.”
- Able to understand and evaluate something.“I don’t have a college degree. I was never a standout student. And yet, I became financially literate—not just in my personal life, but in running a small company.”
noun
- A person who is able to read and write.
- A person who was educated but had not taken a university degree; especially a candidate to take holy orders.