This adjective describes someone without formal education or training in a particular area. It can mean generally uneducated or, with a genitive of reference, uninstructed in a specific subject. In classical Greek it could also carry the sense of 'boorish' or 'uncouth.' Paul uses it in 2 Timothy 2:23 to warn against 'foolish and uneducated controversies'—disputes that arise from lack of proper instruction rather than genuine theological inquiry. The term contrasts the disciplined study of truth with undisciplined speculation.