illiterati

noun

"illiterati" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“illiterati” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Those who cannot read and write Latin.

Corpus desk

Index EN-illiterati · illiterati · English

illiterati · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "I" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for illiterati
PropertyValue
Headwordilliterati
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “illiterati” in English

illiteratifalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

illiterati is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for illiterati in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is illiterati, spelled I-L-L-I-T-E-R-A-T-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Those who cannot read and write Latin.
  2. 2
    Those who are illiterate or unlearned.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how illiterati appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Also known as illiterati (people ignorant of Latin letters), the common run of people were defined intellectually by the limits of their idiom and by the type and "quality" of reading materials available to them.
  2. Offering this address largely in the first person plural, Foxe identifies himself not with the illiterati, who were incapable of reading it, but with Latin-literate Protestants whose numbers must have included many who shared the compiler's ministerial vocation.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "illiterati"?
"illiterati" is spelled I-L-L-I-T-E-R-A-T-I.
What does "illiterati" mean?
As a noun, "illiterati" means: Those who cannot read and write Latin.
What language does "illiterati" come from?
"illiterati" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list