substandard
Americanadjective
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below standard or less than adequate.
substandard housing conditions.
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noting or pertaining to a dialect or variety of a language or a feature of usage that is often considered by others to mark its user as uneducated; nonstandard.
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Insurance.
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not measuring up to an insurer's regular standards in undertaking risks.
a substandard risk.
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pertaining to insurance written to cover substandard risks.
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adjective
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below an established or required standard
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another word for nonstandard
Etymology
Origin of substandard
Explanation
Something substandard is below standard — it’s shoddy or inferior. If your final paper for honors English class is scribbled on a torn sheet of notebook paper, that’s substandard work that you’ll probably have to do over. A standard is a quality by which something is judged, and sub can mean “under” like a submarine that goes under water. So things that are substandard fall below most people's standards — they're deficient in some way. A computer that stops working after two weeks is substandard. A car with faulty brakes is substandard. Substandard things are the opposite of well-made things. Turning in substandard work is a good way to get a bad grade.
Vocabulary lists containing substandard
Oh, No! Synonyms for "Bad"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Substandard players have been recruited and are not mapped at Celtic Park these days.
From BBC • Oct. 28, 2025
Substandard medicines also were found this year in the Marshall Islands and Micronesia before they could do any harm.
From New York Times • Sep. 11, 2023
Substandard treatment at the plant also could cost the ratepayers, through possible fines from the state Department of Ecology.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 12, 2017
Substandard medicines, on the other hand, usually contain insufficient amounts of the active ingredient and result from negligent, but unintentional, errors in factory production.
From Slate • Oct. 26, 2014
Substandard wages provide only a substandard market for the goods and services produced by American industry and agriculture.
From State of the Union Address by Truman, Harry S.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
