Crossword Genius

Poorly represent ignorant character (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

illiterate

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'ignorant character' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'poorly represent' is the wordplay.
'poorly' becomes 'ill' (synonyms).
'represent' becomes 'iterate' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ill'+'iterate'='ILLITERATE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for illiterate that I've seen before include "dunce" , "Ignorant" , "lacking in education" , "Wordless" , "non-reader" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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