How to Use illiteracy in a Sentence

illiteracy

noun
  • His letters contain many misspellings and illiteracies.
  • Her illiteracy was a source of shame for my father, who kept the secret from me for four decades.
    — Héctor Tobar, The New Yorker, 22 July 2019
  • But many struggle with illiteracy, how to use a smartphone or how to get online.
    — Simone Weichselbaum, NBC News, 18 July 2023
  • Want to tell us what your school is doing to tackle reading and illiteracy?
    — Ruth Serven Smith | [email protected], al, 10 Nov. 2021
  • There are no paved roads, no clinics, no milling machines, and illiteracy is near total.
    — Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2021
  • At the same time, the illiteracy crisis is about more than curriculum.
    — Chicago Tribune, 2 Apr. 2025
  • Some see emoji as little more than an adolescent grunt, taking us back to the dark ages of illiteracy.
    — Vyvyan Evans, CNN, 29 May 2017
  • They were not allowed to use their logo — a cricket bat — which is crucial in a country that has a high illiteracy rate.
    — Nick Miller, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2026
  • In a speech-processing world, illiteracy no longer has to be a barrier to a decent life.
    — Kevin Maney, Newsweek, 9 Sep. 2017
  • There is a romance of illiteracy here, as if poetry should be looked at instead of thoughtfully read.
    — Andrea Long Chu, Vulture, 6 May 2025
  • There are those who are grappling with overpowering problems of illiteracy and ill health and who are ill-equipped to hold free elections.
    — Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 4 July 2018
  • This is a shocking swerve by Michele, who recently said the rumors of her illiteracy were sexist.
    — Vulture, 18 Sep. 2022
  • The bizarre Lea Michele illiteracy rumor is one for the history books.
    — Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 26 Jan. 2023
  • In short, the Sanders idea is a frank expression of economic illiteracy.
    — Rich Lowry, Boston Herald, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Their parents sign their names with trembling hands that carry the invisible weight of illiteracy.
    — Joyeeta Banerjee, NPR, 1 Mar. 2026
  • Just a guess here, but maybe your granny would rather expose herself to a deadly virus than admit to her Internet illiteracy.
    — Courtney Shea, refinery29.com, 26 Mar. 2020
  • India's mica belt is among the poorest regions in the country and has high rates of illiteracy and unemployment.
    — Jocelyn C. Zuckerman, Marie Claire, 16 Oct. 2018
  • Nine of the 10 states with the highest illiteracy rates had websites written above a 10th-grade level.
    — Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2020
  • The system was introduced in the 1960s to avoid spoiled ballots in a nation with a high illiteracy rate.
    — Reuters, CNN, 4 Dec. 2021
  • Other detainees at Stewart have helped Maria connect with a lawyer because of her illiteracy.
    — Billal Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 May 2025
  • Because of illiteracy, being from a foreign country or some other reason, many of the names of the deceased are not spelled correctly.
    — Bob Dohr, Journal Sentinel, 25 Aug. 2022
  • Over the same period rates of illiteracy fell from one in five young women aged 15-24 to one in ten, bringing them roughly on a par with young men.
    — The Economist, 16 Dec. 2020
  • According to the Department of Justice, there is a link between high crime rates and illiteracy.
    — Kalyn Dunkins | [email protected], al, 10 Oct. 2022
  • After he was freed and moved to America, Kalinski, dubbed Tim, took steps to hide his illiteracy.
    — Susan Dunne, courant.com, 11 Aug. 2021
  • The Ngabé Buglé are Panama's largest indigenous group and suffer from high rates of poverty and illiteracy.
    — USA TODAY, 17 Jan. 2020
  • Hirsch believes that the consequences of illiteracy are also reflected within the prison system.
    — Nia Bowers, USA Today, 13 Nov. 2025
  • But in a world faced with emerging viruses, the near-certainty of future pandemics, and a rising tide of scientific illiteracy, old and square is sometimes a good thing.
    — Peter Hotez, TIME, 2 May 2024
  • As late as the mid-19th century, seven states employed voice voting, a system in which citizens read their choices out loud due to high illiteracy rates.
    — Erin Blakemore, National Geographic, 11 Nov. 2020
  • The correlation between illiteracy and incarceration has been known for a long time.
    — David Owen, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
  • The 59-year-old adored everything about Barbara Bush - the first lady’s mission to fight illiteracy.
    — Robert Downen, Houston Chronicle, 21 Apr. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'illiteracy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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