literati

plural noun

ˌli-tə-ˈrä-(ˌ)tē How to pronounce literati (audio)
Definition of literatinext
as in intelligentsia
intellectuals considered as a social class Boston's 19th-century literati often referred to their city as "the Athens of America"

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Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of literati Big Sur, ancestral home of the Esselen Tribe, former refuge for beatniks and literati like Henry Miller, and a hiking haven where the redwoods meet the Pacific Ocean, is fully accessible once more. — Aislyn Greene, AFAR Media, 16 Jan. 2026 Since the seventies, the famed Nuyorican Poets Café has blossomed on the Lower East Side as an essential hothouse for arts movements of many stripes, perhaps most crucially as a launching pad for an emergent literati straddling the realms of soul and hip-hop. — Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 15 May 2026 Founded by Gino Dal Cin, DC’s senior manager of development operations, the fair, designed to showcase individual artists and illustrators, cannot help but unite the local literati in perfect harmony. — Kendall Morgan, Dallas Morning News, 12 Mar. 2026 Intriguingly, the 140 selections on view, ranging from vases to books, Buddhist figurines to landscape painting, literati desk accessories to official portraiture, look nothing at all like the art favored by European aristocrats arrayed elsewhere in the Art Institute. — Lori Waxman, Chicago Tribune, 29 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for literati

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literate
literati
lithe
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Cite this Entry

“Literati.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/literati. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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