(a.) Unable to read or write\; ignorant of letters or books; unlettered; uninstructed; uneducated; as, an illiterate man, or people.

Gothic Philistine barbarous benighted bookless dabbler deceived dilettante dunce empty-headed fool functionally illiterate grammarless greenhorn greeny heathen hoodwinked ignoramus ignorant ill-educated illiterati know-nothing led astray lowbrow middlebrow misinformed misinstructed mistaught no scholar nonintellectual pagan puddinghead rude tenderfoot unbooked unbookish unbooklearned unbriefed uncultivated uncultured unedified uneducated unenlightened unerudite unguided uninstructed unintellectual unintelligentsia unlearned unlettered unliterary unread unrefined unscholarly unschooled unstudious untaught untutored