literati
/ˌlɪt.əˈɹɑː.tiː/US/ˌlɪtəˈɹɑti/
literati noun: well-educated, erudite, literary people; intellectuals who are interested in literature.
Noun
literati pl (normally plural, singular literatus or literato)
- Well-educated, erudite, literary people; intellectuals who are interested in literature.
- First, to Counsellor Fitzclabber, who, he told me, was then employed in compiling a history of the kings of Minster, from Irish manuscripts; and then to his friend Mr. Gahagan, who was a profound philosopher and politician, and had projected many excellent schemes for the good of his country. But...1748, Tobias George Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, Forgotten Books, published 2008, →ISBN, page 301
- He is not of the people, this lordly magistrate. He is one of the privileged literati. His literary degrees are high and numerous.1883, Isabella L. Bird, The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither, BiblioBazaar, published 2008, →ISBN, Letter IV (Continued), page 83
- Antonyms:
- illiterati
literati meaning in Tamil and Indonesian
literati in Tamil
- literati, poets; learned assemblies or academies of ancient times patronised by Pāṇḍya kings
- சங்கம் caṅkam
literati in Indonesian
- well-educated, literary people
- literati
Examples of literati in a sentence
- But it seems these literati had been very ill rewarded for their ingenious labours; for, between them both, there was but one shirt, and half a pair of breeches.1748, Tobias George Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, Forgotten Books, published 2008, →ISBN, page 301:
- Just like every other human organization, the selection of political leaders through the parties has its weaknesses, but these have been exposed ad nauseam by German literati during the last decades.1968, Max Weber, “Bureaucracy and Political Leadership”, in Reinhard Bendix, editor, State and Society: A Reader in Comparative Political...
- Eighteenth-century Scottish intellectuals, the literati, had substantial interests in America.2001, Roger L. Emerson, “The Scottish Literati and America, 1680–1800”, in Ned C. Landsman, editor, Nation and Province in the First...
Antonyms of literati
Forms of literati
| singular | literatus |
|---|---|
| singular | literato |
| alternative uncommon | litterati |
Origin of literati
From Latin līterātī, plural of līterātus (“lettered, literate”).
Words formed from literati
Questions about literati
- What does literati mean?
- Literati means well-educated, erudite, literary people; intellectuals who are interested in literature.
- What is literati in Tamil?
- Literati in Tamil is சங்கம் (caṅkam). See Literati meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use literati in a sentence?
- But it seems these literati had been very ill rewarded for their ingenious labours; for, between them both, there was but one shirt, and half a pair of breeches.
- What part of speech is literati?
- Literati is a noun.
- How do you pronounce literati?
- Literati is pronounced /ˌlɪt.əˈɹɑː.tiː/ (UK).
Words near literati in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: literati (page history and authors); சங்கம் (Tamil) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-literati.wav.
Cite this entry: “literati.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/literati. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.