Word for the ability to read and write

‘ABILITY TO READ AND WRITE’ is a 21 letter
Phrase
starting with A and ending with E

Crossword answers for ABILITY TO READ AND WRITE

Below are possible answers for the crossword clue Ability to read and write.

8 letter answer(s) to ability to read and write

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From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Literacy means the ability to read and write. Being able to read and write is an important skill in modern societies. Usually, people learn how to read and write at school. People who can read and write are called literate; those who cannot are called illiterate.

According to UNESCO, illiteracy is not being able to write or read a simple sentence in any language. They estimated that, in 1998, about 16% of the world’s population were illiterate.

Illiteracy is highest amongst the states of the Arabian Peninsula, and in Africa, around the Sahara.^[1] In those countries about 30% of men, and 40-50% of women are illiterate, by the UN definition. One of the causes of illiteracy is that someone who can manage to live without being able to read and write often does not have any reason to want to learn to read and write. Cultural factors also play a part, such as having a culture in which the oral tradition (communicating by speaking) is more important than writing. A tribe that mostly herds livestock, for example, may have no need to read or write.

There are two different kinds of illiteracy:

• People with primary illiteracy have never learned how to read or write.
• People who have learned some reading and writing, but not well enough for their work are called functionally illiterate. Perhaps they cannot write well enough to fill out a form, or to understand instructions in a manual. In most industrial countries, the main problem is functional illiteracy.

In English the word literacy has traditionally meant to be well educated.^[2] It also meant to be familiar with literature (to know about books).^[2] In the late 19th century the word came to include the ability to read and write. It still kept its larger meaning.^[2] In modern usage, literacy also means being able to read print, visual, and sound texts.^[3] To continue learning students must be literate in more than just reading and writing text.^[3]

[change | change source]

• Aliteracy
• Writing
• Reading
• Literacy test
• Right to education

References[change | change source]

Presumably you want a word to describe a non-native or learner of the language. For Europeans learning other European languages (where the writing is in the Roman or Cyrillic alphabet and learning to read is trivial in comparison to speak and listen), you would say that a person has

having reading proficiency

in the language. For a single word adjective, I don’t think there’s a wod for any particular ability like ‘speakability’ or ‘readability’ (that means what you want it to mean).

For languages where the accepted writing system takes much more study like Chinese or Japanese, most people learn those languages academically where the proficiency in both go at about the same rate (it’s almost like learning two different languages at the same time, spoken and written).

For the other side, for native speakers, there is only the issue of whether they can read their own language and for that

literate

captures the idea.

‘Literate’ could also work for the non-native learner, but even though intended for only the reading skill, might be misunderstood for ‘well-educated’ in the language, meaning both able to read -and- speak well.