Meaning & use
uneducated
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Having had little or no formal schooling, or lacking the knowledge schooling usually provides.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: an uneducated farmer. It describes schooling, not intelligence, though some people hear it as an insult.
Patterns
- be uneducated
- an uneducated person
Many people in the village were uneducated because the nearest school was far away.
He was uneducated but taught himself to read at forty.
The charity helps uneducated adults earn a diploma.
adjectivebefore a noundisapproving
Showing a lack of knowledge or taste, as in an opinion or guess made without proper information.
Grammar: Often before 'guess' or 'opinion'; mildly critical when used of someone's views.
Patterns
- an uneducated guess
- an uneducated opinion
Her uneducated opinion on law was not taken seriously.
He gave an uneducated answer, having never read the book.
Critics dismissed the remarks as uneducated and unfair.
Word forms
| comparative | more uneducated |
|---|---|
| superlative | most uneducated |
Common combinations
- largely uneducated
- The workforce was largely uneducated and poorly paid.
- uneducated population
- An uneducated population cannot easily improve its future.
- uneducated people
- Uneducated people are not necessarily unintelligent.
- remain uneducated
- Many girls remained uneducated for generations.
- uneducated masses
- The speaker spoke with disdain about the uneducated masses.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unschooled
- Unschooled is gentler and stresses that someone did not attend school, with less suggestion of ignorance.
- illiterate
- Illiterate is narrower and means unable to read and write, while uneducated is broader and can describe someone who reads well but lacks schooling.
- ignorant
- Ignorant says someone lacks knowledge of a particular thing and sounds more insulting than uneducated.
- untaught
- Untaught is literary and means never given instruction, in a skill or subject.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: uneducated or uninformed?
uneducated vs uninformed
Uninformed means not given the facts about a particular matter, and a well-schooled person can be uninformed. Uneducated is about a person's schooling.
Practice
Which word is the best opposite of 'uneducated' in the phrase 'an uneducated workforce'?
Choose one answer.
Educated is the direct opposite, describing people who have had schooling. Uninformed and illiterate are related but narrower, and unemployed is about jobs, not schooling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “uneducated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.