as in ignorant
lacking in education or the knowledge gained from books
unlettered moviegoers could scarcely imagine how little resemblance the film bore to the novel on which it was supposedly based
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Recent Examples of unlettered
The unlettered Prince has gained in life what Hamlet achieved only in death: his own story shaped on his own terms, thanks to the intervention of a skillful Horatio.
—
Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2023
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
Their first point of concern is that unlettered and uninformed residents were herded into vehicles and enrolled as trial participants.
—Manavi Kapur, Quartz India, 12 Jan. 2021
The British Admiralty sent ships in search of pathways through the ice that would lead to this mythic sea, an objective scoffed at by unlettered whalers who spent their lives in waters along the edge of the sea ice and knew better.
—David James, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Aug. 2019
Her husband constantly referred to her dismissively as a simple, unlettered woman.
—Ferdinand Mount, WSJ, 1 Nov. 2018
The consequences of Kanye West’s unlettered view of America and its history are, if anything, more direct.
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, 7 May 2018
In the tradition of both black and white southern folk preaching, ministers usually spoke extemporaneously to unlettered congregants, who expected the Spirit of God to impart messages of encouragement and hope.
—The Economist, 28 Mar. 2018
Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2023
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
Their first point of concern is that unlettered and uninformed residents were herded into vehicles and enrolled as trial participants.
—Manavi Kapur, Quartz India, 12 Jan. 2021
The British Admiralty sent ships in search of pathways through the ice that would lead to this mythic sea, an objective scoffed at by unlettered whalers who spent their lives in waters along the edge of the sea ice and knew better.
—David James, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Aug. 2019
Her husband constantly referred to her dismissively as a simple, unlettered woman.
—Ferdinand Mount, WSJ, 1 Nov. 2018
The consequences of Kanye West’s unlettered view of America and its history are, if anything, more direct.
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, 7 May 2018
In the tradition of both black and white southern folk preaching, ministers usually spoke extemporaneously to unlettered congregants, who expected the Spirit of God to impart messages of encouragement and hope.
—The Economist, 28 Mar. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unlettered
ignorant
Adjective
-
The former Fox host Tucker Carlson, who opposed such an operation, sparred with two boosters: the current Fox host Mark Levin, and the Republican senator Ted Cruz, whom Carlson revealed to be ignorant of basic facts about Iran in a clip that went viral.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
27 June 2025
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Maybe LLMs get us 80% of the way there without any oversight, but skipping the context and being completely ignorant of what the machine is doing is typically not a good idea, partly for the reasons that the panelists laid out.—
John Werner,
Forbes.com,
19 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unlettered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unlettered. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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