non·lit·er·ate

(nŏn-lĭt′ər-ĭt)

adj.

Having no written language; preliterate.

non·lit′er·ate n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nonliterate

(ˌnɒnˈlɪtərɪt)

adj

not able to read and write

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

non•lit•er•ate

(nɒnˈlɪt ər ɪt)

adj.

preliterate.

[1945–50]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

nonliterate - used of a society that has not developed writing

preliterate

noncivilised, noncivilized - not having a high state of culture and social development

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References in periodicals archive

The nonliterate aspect of our 'civilization' was conquered, vanquished and thrown aside.

From scraps, our nation's history

Complex civilizations that use ideographic or syllabary writing rather than alphabets belong, for McLuhan (2002a), in the same "tribal" category as nonliterate societies: "it is by alphabet alone that men have detribalized or individualized themselves into 'civilization'" (pp.

Bringing the Mountain to the Prophet: Marshall McLuhan's Mythology in the Anthropocene

In this way, as Abram suggests, the spell of the alphabet replaced the meaning that the native sounds and appearances of the earth conveyed to our nonliterate forebears.

Introduction: Earth Writing

The authors also seem to assume that the guilds wrote their own plays and that the manuscripts represent 'some of the earliest works of literature by a largely nonliterate class' (24).

The Civic Cycles: Artisan Drama and Identity

"Standoffish States: Nonliterate Leviathans in Southeast Asia".

Beyond State Capacity: Civil Society and Policy Implementation at the Subnational Level in Cusco and San Martin (Peru)/Mas alla de la capacidad estatal: sociedad civil e implementacion de politicas a nivel subnacional en Cusco y San Martin (Peru)/Para alem da capacidade estatal: sociedade civil e implementacao de politicas a nivel subnacional em Cusco e San Martin (Peru)

As such, this fourth stage of cognitive development is either entirely absent or only discernible in limited form in nonliterate societies or those that are defined by a slowly developing, traditional culture.

Cannon fodder for the revolution: the Russian proletariat in 1917

Interview method was employed especially where nonliterate respondents who cannot complete the questionnaire themselves were encountered.

Agropastoral Mobility and Rangelands Multiple Uses in the Miombo Frontier Ecozone of Tabora Region, Western Tanzania

From Percy to Child, ballad editors sought to recover traces of this presumptively pre- or nonliterate national verse from what were viewed as its ruins in archives or the memories of rural singers.

Taking back the Ballad: Swinburne in the 1860s

Despite obvious inequalities (with an estimated one billion nonliterate adults worldwide), it seems safe to state that in most cities around the world today there are more people spending more time using more text to do more things in more places.

Ambient text and the becoming space of writing