literate

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: lit=er=ate

CIDE DICTIONARY

literate, a. [L. litteratus, literatus. See Letter.].

 Instructed in learning, science, or literature; learned; lettered.  [1913 Webster]
"The literate now chose their emperor, as the military chose theirs."  [1913 Webster]

literate, n. 

•  One educated, but not having taken a university degree; especially, such a person who is prepared to take holy orders.  [1913 Webster]
•  A literary man.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

literate, adj. & n.
--adj. able to read and write.
--n. a literate person.

Derivative

literately adv.

Etymology

ME f. L litteratus (as LETTER)

THESAURUS

literate

Brahmin, abstruse, brainworker, civilized, cultivated, cultured, deep, educated, egghead, encyclopedic, erudite, highbrow, intellect, intellectual, intellectualist, learned, lettered, mandarin, pansophic, polyhistoric, polymath, polymathic, profound, scholarly, scholastic, studious, thinker, white-collar intellectual, wise, wise man