What does semi-literate mean?

Answer 1

Something like just a half learnt person, this is, one (or even a group of folks) who studied and/or read little, even though maybe pretending now to appear like having much knowledge.

---- Someone who is illiterate cannot read or write at all. Someone who is fully literate can read and write just about anything that they want to.

Semi-literate covers all the ground inbetween. At one end semi-literate might mean someone who can sign his own name, and read simple posters - but cannot read or write sentences (many people in the nineteenth century would have stayed around this level); at the other end semi-literate could cover someone who could write a basic postcard and perhaps read very short articles in a simple newspaper, but could not manage a full-length letter or a diary entry, and was unable to read serious newspaper editorials or non-fiction books (you probably know quite a few people like that).