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semiliterate

adjective

Definition of semiliteratenext
as in illiterate

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for semiliterate
  1. illiterate
  2. uneducated
  3. ignorant
  4. unschooled
  5. untutored
  6. nonliterate
  7. benighted
  8. unlettered
Adjective
  • As a peripheral community grows around them, this lawless terrain is suddenly subject to boundaries and contracts and taxes; both uneducated and illiterate, Isak and Inger are ill prepared for such societal evolution.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026
  • Her father was an illiterate sharecropper whose 12 children shared a one-room cabin with no running water or electricity.
    — The Week US, TheWeek, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of illiterate
Adjective
  • As a peripheral community grows around them, this lawless terrain is suddenly subject to boundaries and contracts and taxes; both uneducated and illiterate, Isak and Inger are ill prepared for such societal evolution.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026
  • The gang members preyed on girls and women who were poor and uneducated with few job prospects and forced them into prostitution, authorities said at the time.
    — Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of uneducated
Adjective
  • The old worst dressed lists could be cruel, sexist, culturally ignorant, and spectacularly misguided.
    — Derek C. Blasberg, Vanity Fair, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Mamdani’s ignorant opinion illustrates Kissinger’s concern, relying on emotional display rather than the facts.
    — Daniel Kolkey, Oc Register, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of ignorant
Adjective
  • Scholars hazarded theories as to how an unschooled middle-aged Black woman from the South could brush with genius.
    — Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Mata was also concerned about how the data failed to display how INA staff works with the lowest English proficiency students in the district — specifically those who are unschooled, and oftentimes refugees who have just entered the country.
    — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Apr. 2026
Definition of unschooled
Adjective
  • No untutored voice, nor even sound of rushing car disturbed the seemingly sacred stillness of the hour.
    — Erin Alberty, Axios, 14 Apr. 2025
  • His savage, untutored mind suggested no better way than that of wreaking vengeance upon those who had wronged him.
    — Liz Tracey, JSTOR Daily, 21 Feb. 2025
Definition of untutored
Adjective
  • Such a practice would have been especially useful in nonliterate societies where knowledge was transmitted orally.
    — Amanda Fortini, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020
Definition of nonliterate
Adjective
  • Could Kleist’s conjecture provide a key to their seeming vacancy, their resignation, their helplessness, suggesting that in their benighted condition lies spiritual perfection?
    — Matthew McLean, Artforum, 22 Sep. 2026
  • But this time there would be no panel from the National Endowment of the Arts sifting through the applications, no oversight from cultural officials and benighted curators—the usual process.
    — Nate Freeman, Vanity Fair, 8 May 2026
Definition of benighted
Adjective
  • Busby Berkeley Wrongly taken as a mere ornamentalist—even worse, sometimes mistaken for a fascist—Busby Berkeley was an erotic sociobiologist, an unlettered philosopher in visual music.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 23 July 2022
  • The characters include a temperamental goat, a sweet-natured monk, an unlettered orphan boy and an intelligent young girl whose destiny is to dethrone a king.
    — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 10 Dec. 2021
Definition of unlettered
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

semiliquid
semiliterate
semilustrous
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Cite this Entry

“Semiliterate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/semiliterate. Accessed 24 Sep. 2026.

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