unlearned

ignorant, illiterate, unlettered, untutored, unlearned mean not having knowledge. ignorant may imply a general condition or it may apply to lack of knowledge or awareness of a particular thing.

• • an ignorant fool
• • ignorant of nuclear physics

illiterate applies to either an absolute or a relative inability to read and write.

• • much of the population is still illiterate

unlettered implies ignorance of the knowledge gained by reading.

• • an allusion meaningless to the unlettered

untutored may imply lack of schooling in the arts and ways of civilization.

• • strange monuments built by an untutored people

unlearned suggests ignorance of advanced subjects.

• • poetry not for academics but for the unlearned masses