aliterate
/eɪˈlɪtəɹət/
aliterate adjective: disinclined to read though not illiterate; able to read but reluctant or unlikely to do so.
Adjective
aliterate (comparative more aliterate, superlative most aliterate)
- Disinclined to read though not illiterate; able to read but reluctant or unlikely to do so.
Noun
aliterate (plural aliterates)
- Someone who is able to read but disinclined to do so.
- Mark Twain famously said, "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who can't read"; more succinctly: the aliterate has little advantage over the illiterate.
Forms of aliterate
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more aliterate |
| superlative | most aliterate |
| Noun | |
| plural | aliterates |
Origin of aliterate
From a- + literate.
Questions about aliterate
- What does aliterate mean?
- Aliterate means disinclined to read though not illiterate; able to read but reluctant or unlikely to do so.
- What part of speech is aliterate?
- Aliterate can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce aliterate?
- Aliterate is pronounced /eɪˈlɪtəɹət/.
Words near aliterate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: aliterate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “aliterate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aliterate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.