functional illiteracy

noun

as in illiteracy

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for functional illiteracy
  1. illiteracy
  2. ignorance
  3. dumbness
  4. idiocy
Noun
  • There’s no danger of spontaneous mass illiteracy, but the complex cognitive skills that reading fosters start to degrade.
    — Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026
  • And now creative events like the various fair demonstrations and exhibits bring the problem of illiteracy into public spaces and help remove the stigma surrounding it.
    — Catharine Kaufman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 May 2026
Definition of illiteracy
Noun
  • The age of the activists has drawn comments, even from government officials, that youth equates to naivety and ignorance.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 6 Aug. 2026
  • In the first season, he was met with resistance on all fronts to his unorthodox methods of coaching, his ignorance of the sport, his sheer Americanness.
    — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 5 Aug. 2026
Definition of ignorance
Noun
  • The first 10 minutes are an incredible swirl of paranoia, alcoholism, and sluggish dumbness when Gould just needs to feed his cat.
    — Eric Farwell, Entertainment Weekly, 12 June 2026
  • Unlike its sibling concepts of dumbness and idiocy, stupidity isn’t really a personality trait.
    — Jonny Thomson, Big Think, 11 Feb. 2026
Definition of dumbness
Noun
  • It’s been a classic staple over decades of British comedy, which from Basil Fawlty to David Brent has rejoiced in puncturing pomposity to reveal idiocy and incompetence.
    — Alex Ritman, Variety, 7 Aug. 2026
  • The school board’s radical idiocy does not negate the state’s obligation to think about the longer haul — specifically, the structurally unbalanced budgets facing Chicago Public Schools as far as the eye can see.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of idiocy
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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functional
functional illiteracy
functionally illiterate
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Cite this Entry

“Functional illiteracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/functional%20illiteracy. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.

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