literate
/ˈlɪtəɹət/
literate adjective: able to read and write; having literacy.
Adjective
literate (comparative more literate, superlative most literate)
- Able to read and write; having literacy.
- Intelligence tests are biased toward the literate.1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 86
- Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Monday (September 8, 2025) declared Himachal as a “fully literate State” on the occasion of International Literary Day. […] Journey from 7% to 99.30%: The Chief Minister said Himachal Pradesh had reached this goal well before the scheduled...2025 September 8, “Himachal Pradesh becomes ‘fully literate State’. CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu says the literacy rate in Himachal reached 99.30%, which is higher than the national benchmark of 95%...
- Antonyms:
- illiterate
- Knowledgeable in literature, writing; literary; well-read.
- The reason literature plays a unique role in any literate culture is its longevity.2008 January 7, Charles Hugh Smith, Can a Fragmented Culture Find Common Ground?
- 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.2005, Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, Harper
- 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.2026 April 22, Jillian Sanders, “The Danger of Surrendering Your Financial Independence in a Relationship”, in TIME, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2026
Noun
literate (plural literates)
- 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.
literate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
literate in Hindi
- able to read, having literacy
- साक्षर sākṣar, शिक्षित śikṣit, पढ़ा लिखा paṛhā likhā
- knowledgeable in literature and writing
- शिक्षित śikṣit
literate in Tamil
- எழுதப்படிக்கத் தெரிந்த, எழுத்தறிவுள்ளவர், கற்றறிந்த, கல்வியறிவுடையவர், கல்வியறிவுள்ள, படிப்பறிவுடையவர்
literate in Marathi
- साक्षर
literate in Urdu
- خواندہ, پڑھا لکھا
More languagesFewer languages
- literate in Bengali
- সাক্ষর, শিক্ষিত, মার্জিত
- literate in Telugu
- అక్షరాస్యులు
- literate in Malayalam
- വായിക്കാനും എഴുതാനും കഴിവുളള, സാക്ഷരനായ, പഠിപ്പുള്ള
- literate in Kannada
- ಸಾಕ್ಷರಿ, ಅಕ್ಷರಸ್ಥ, ಓದುಬರಹ ಬಲ್ಲ, ಬರಹಬಲ್ಲ
- literate in Gujarati
- સાક્ષર
- literate in Odia
- ସାକ୍ଷର
- literate in Nepali
- साक्षर
- literate in Tagalog
- nulat
Examples of literate in a sentence
- And you—you clueless, literate shmuck—are but a pawn in this game.
- But leg men nowadays are expected to be literate, though sometimes barely.
- He had asked, 'So do the literate acada people also do that?'
Antonyms of literate
Forms of literate
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more literate |
| superlative | most literate |
| alternative form (obsolete) | litterate |
| Noun | |
| plural | literates |
Origin of literate
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.
Words formed from literate
- aliterate
- antiliterate
- biliterate
- carbon-literate
- cineliterate
- computerate
- computer literate
- cyberliterate
- ecoliterate
- e-literate
- food-literate
- graphicate
- hyperliterate
- literately
- literateness
- literate programming
- literatesque
- literatize
- metaliterate
- monoliterate
- multiliterate
- nonliterate
- pluriliterate
- postliterate
- preliterate
- protoliterate
- quasiliterate
- semiliterate
- subliterate
- superliterate
- technoliterate
- triliterate
- unliterate
Questions about literate
- What does literate mean?
- Literate means able to read and write; having literacy.
- What is literate in Hindi?
- Literate in Hindi is साक्षर (sākṣar), शिक्षित (śikṣit), पढ़ा लिखा (paṛhā likhā). See Literate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is literate?
- Literate can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce literate?
- Literate is pronounced /ˈlɪtəɹət/.
Words near literate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: literate (page history and authors); literate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); literate (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); literate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Literate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); literate (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); literate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); literate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); literate (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); literate (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); literate (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-literate.wav.
Cite this entry: “literate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/literate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.