literate

From Latin litteratus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪtəɹət/

literate (comparative more literate, superlative most literate)

1. Able to read and write; having literacy.

   Antonym: illiterate

2. Knowledgeable in literature, writing; literary; well-read.
3. Which is used in writing (of a language or dialect).
   • 2005, Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, Harper:

     The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan even commissioned an alphabetic script for his empire, to be used officially for all its literate languages, Mongolian, Chinese, Turkic and Persian.

• computer literate

• illiterate
• letter
• literal
• literacy
• literary
• literature

literate (plural literates)

1. A person who is able to read and write.
2. (historical) A person who was educated but had not taken a university degree; especially a candidate to take holy orders.

• literate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• literate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• laterite, litteræ, teretial

literāte

1. vocative masculine singular of literātus

• literate in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)