adj.
1.
a. Unable to read and write.
b. Having little or no formal education.
2.
a. Marked by
inferiority to an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature: an illiterate magazine.
b. Violating prescribed standards of speech or writing: a paragraph with several illiterate
expressions.
3. Ignorant of the
fundamentals of a given art or branch of knowledge: musically illiterate. See Usage Note at literate.
n.
1. A person who is illiterate.
2. (used with a pl. verb) People who are illiterate, considered as a group.