Dictionary

analphabetic en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Hellenic *ə- Ancient Greek ᾰ̓- (ă-) Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-)der. English an- English alphabetic English analphabetic From an- + alphabetic.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) (of symbols) Not alphabetic.
2. (comparable) (of a person) Illiterate, unable to read or write.
   • His system of exchange was that for any book in his bundle you gave him four annas, and any other book. Not quite any book, however, for the book-wallah, though analphabetic, had learned to recognize and refuse a Bible. 1935, George Orwell, chapter 19, in Burmese Days:

Forms

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analphabetic en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Hellenic *ə- Ancient Greek ᾰ̓- (ă-) Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-)der. English an- English alphabetic English analphabetic From an- + alphabetic.

Meanings

1. An illiterate person.
   • At press conferences you hear a visiting statesman so eloquent in his own language—and then suddenly he tries a few words in French...an idiot speaking, an analphabetic from some wretched forgotten hamlet learning to read at the age of seventy.— 1979, Nadine Gordimer, Burger's Daughter, Penguin, published 1980, page 267:

Forms