What does uneducated mean?
Word: Uneducated
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Uneducated means having had little or no schooling, or showing a lack of learning about a subject.
Synonyms: unschooled, untaught, illiterate
Antonyms: educated, schooled
How do you spell uneducated?
Syllables: un - ed - u - cat - ed
Tricky part: The middle is spelt du, even though many people say it like ju. Students also squeeze out letters and write unedcated or uneduated.
Watch out for: unedjucated, unedcated, uneducatted
Memory tip: Find duc in the middle, the same duc as in conduct and product; it comes from a Latin word meaning to lead.
Uneducated in a sentence
Example 1: My grandmother called herself uneducated, but she could add a column of prices faster than any calculator.
Example 2: Being uneducated about money matters, he signed the loan papers without reading them.
Example 3: The NGO runs evening classes for uneducated adults who want to learn to read.
Fun Fact
Its opposite, educated, turns up in the phrase 'an educated guess', a guess based on some knowledge, so even a guess can be educated.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. intelect 2. ignorrant 3. uneducated 4. scholerly
a) showing a great deal of study and learning
b) not taught much at any school
c) lacking knowledge or information
d) the power of the mind to think and understand
Show answer
b) not taught much at any school. Intellect has a double l and ends in -ect, ignorant has one r, and scholarly is built on scholar with an a.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word uneducated as used in the sentence:
Though uneducated himself, the farmer saved every penny so that his daughters could study at a college in town.
a) uninformed
b) learned
c) humble
d) unaware
Show answer
b) learned. The farmer had little schooling himself; a learned person has studied a great deal, so the two are opposites.
Word Cookie
Fill in the missing letters to complete the word:
un_ducat_d
a) i, e
b) e, i
c) a, e
d) e, e
Show answer
d) e, e. The word inside is educate, which begins with an e, and the past ending -ed supplies the second e.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
In the old story, the eadnutcdue woodcutter outwitted the proud scholar with plain common sense.
a) unrelated
b) uneducated
c) educated
d) undecided
Show answer
b) uneducated. Educated is only eight letters long, the c in the jumble rules out unrelated, and with no i it cannot be undecided.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Someone described as uneducated has usually ____.
a) lived all their life in a city
b) had little chance to go to school
c) won a lot of sports prizes
d) travelled to many other countries
Show answer
b) had little chance to go to school
2. Which person would a writer most likely describe as uneducated?
a) a teacher with two university degrees
b) a girl who tops her class every year
c) a doctor who studied for ten long years
d) a man who left school at seven to work
Show answer
d) a man who left school at seven to work
