analphabetic
English
Etymology
an- + alphabetic
Adjective
analphabetic (comparative more analphabetic, superlative most analphabetic)
- (not comparable) (of symbols) Not alphabetic.
- (comparable) (of a person) Illiterate, unable to read or write.
- 1935, George Orwell, chapter 19, in Burmese Days:
- 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.
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Noun
analphabetic (plural analphabetics)
- An illiterate person.
- 1979, Nadine Gordimer, Burger's Daughter, Penguin, 1980, p. 267,
- 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, 1980, p. 267,
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