Word.ws English Dictionary

semiliterate

semiliterate adjective: not entirely literate; having a limited grasp of the written language.

Adjective

semiliterate (not comparable)

  1. Not entirely literate; having a limited grasp of the written language.
    • With the necessary prowess of the semiliterate, Heed had a flawless memory, and like most nonreaders, she was highly numerate.2003, Toni Morrison, Love, Vintage (2016), page 75
    Synonyms:
    subliterate

Noun

semiliterate (plural semiliterates)

  1. A person who is semiliterate.
    • If Rita Mae Brown were an exceptional writer, I might be more willing to give an ear to her pontificating […] But even as a pulp writer, Brown will have to treat lesbians as more than a bunch of anencephalic semi-literates who will sanctify her name forevermore. We have to have the guts to say...1988 December 11, Susana Darwin, “Keep Editing, Rita Mae”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 22, page 10
    Synonyms:
    subliterate

Synonyms of semiliterate

Forms of semiliterate

pluralsemiliterates

Origin of semiliterate

From semi- + literate.

Questions about semiliterate

What does semiliterate mean?
Semiliterate means not entirely literate; having a limited grasp of the written language.
What part of speech is semiliterate?
Semiliterate can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near semiliterate in the dictionary

  1. semiliquid
  2. semiliquidity
  3. semiliquids
  4. semiliteracy
  5. semiliteral
  6. semiliterate
  7. semiliterates
  8. Semillon
  9. semilobar
  10. semilocal
  11. semilocular

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: semiliterate (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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