literate
/ˈlɪtəɹət/adjective, noun
literate is spelled L-I-T-E-R-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is litterate: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 27 of all searches for the word. Literate is an adjective meaning “Able to read and write; having literacy”.
How many letters and syllables are in literate?
| Letters | 8: L-I-T-E-R-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words; the 20,356th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, litterate, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell literate?
Literate is spelled L-I-T-E-R-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 28 of the searches for literate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is literate?
Literate appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce literate?
- /ˈlɪtəɹət/
Literate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-literate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with literate?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as literate.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: laterite.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of literate
- more literate comparative
- most literate superlative
- literates plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does literate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Able to read and write; having literacy.
- 2
Knowledgeable in literature, writing; literary; well-read.
- 3
Which is used in writing (of a language or dialect).
- 4
Able to understand and evaluate something.
noun
- 1
A person who is able to read and write.
- 2
A person who was educated but had not taken a university degree; especially a candidate to take holy orders.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Literate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | alphabète, lettré |
| German | schriftkundig, schreibkundig, lese- und schreibkundig, des Lesens und Schreibens mächtig, alphabetisiert, literal |
| Portuguese | letrado, alfabetizado |
| Spanish | alfabetizado, letrado, alfabeto , persona letrada |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does literate come from?
Inherited from Middle English litterate, borrowed from Latin lītterātus, līterātus, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix). Doublet of literato and literatus. Displaced native Old English stæfwīs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).