second-rate

[sek-uhnd-reyt]

adjective

1. of lesser or minor quality, importance, or the like.

   a second-rate poet.

2. inferior; mediocre.

   a second-rate performance.

   Synonyms: commonplace, pedestrian, undistinguished, inadequate, middling

second-rate

adjective

1. not of the highest quality; mediocre

2. second in importance, etc

Other Word Forms

• second-rateness noun
• secondrater noun
• second-rater noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of second-rate¹

First recorded in 1660–70

Example Sentences

In the span of just a few months, Google has fought off concerns that AI would kill its Search business and has transformed Gemini from a second-rate chatbot into a serious competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Read more on MarketWatch

It was an Ominous Landscape, painted by the same second-rate artist whose portrait of Agatha Swanburne hung in a secret gallery at the British Museum . . . and both were signed with the letter A. .

Read more on Literature

Mamdani's attempt to break into the competitive world of professional music did not last, with the performer-turned-politician calling himself a second-rate artist.

Read more on Barron's

The government also said northern England had been stuck with "second-rate" transport links for too long, and that this was "leaving communities cut off and holding back growth".

Read more on BBC

After a year on the sidelines as Red Bull's reserve, he won the Williams seat, partly on Russell's recommendation, but until this year he had been teamed only with second-rate drivers.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• crummy 
• inferior