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Showing results for innumerate. Search instead for inantherate.

innumerate

American  
[ih-noo-mer-it, ih-nyoo-] / ɪˈnu mər ɪt, ɪˈnyu- /

adjective

  1. unfamiliar with mathematical concepts and methods; unable to use mathematics; not numerate.

noun

  1. an innumerate person.

innumerate British  
/ ɪˈnjuːmərɪt /

adjective

  1. having neither knowledge nor understanding of mathematics or science

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. an innumerate person

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • innumeracy noun

Etymology

Origin of innumerate

First recorded in 1959; in- 3 + numerate

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

This one any innumerate person can understand: The injury rate in the NFL is 100 percent.

From Washington Post • Jan. 12, 2023

To some degree, I think all of us as just a species, we’re a little bit innumerate as it relates to big numbers.

From The Verge • Nov. 1, 2021

Mr. Mishkin says that, to the contrary, he took Mr. Trump’s prospects so seriously that one of his daughters told him that he was beginning to sound like the innumerate Trump booster Bill Mitchell.

From New York Times • Sep. 27, 2020

I understood how unlikely it was that this would happen again, but I have become emotionally innumerate about pregnancy.

From Slate • Feb. 7, 2019

It constitutes a kind of psychological illusion to which innumerate people are particularly prone.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.