mass literacy
Population-wide reading ability
Mass literacy is the condition of a population where reading and writing are widespread rather than limited to elites, clergy, or specialists.
The term typically appears in historical contexts discussing the social transformations that followed the printing press, public education, and compulsory schooling: Mass literacy reshaped political participation in the nineteenth century.
The threshold varies—some use it when a majority can read; others require near-universal ability.
- readingInterpreting written text
- reading skillsAbility to decode text
- writingRecorded language on surface
- educationSystematic development of mind
- public schoolsGovernment-funded educational institutions
books · schools · Sunday schools · printing · printing press · universal · newspapers · libraries · free libraries · alphabet · population · common people · empowerment · social mobility · revolution · primers · enlightenment · public
mass literacyfunctional illiteracy
Inadequate reading for daily life
mass literacyoral culture
Society transmitting knowledge verbally
oral tradition · orality · oral transmission · spoken tradition · preliteracy
mass, literacy, masses, massed, massing, massive, massively, massiveness, literate