underrate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
underrates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
underrated,
past participle, past
-
underrating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
underratesimple
-
underratessimple
-
have underratedperfect
-
has underratedperfect
-
am underratingprogressive
-
are underratingprogressive
-
is underratingprogressive
-
have been underratingperfect progressive
-
has been underratingperfect progressive
Past
-
underratedsimple
-
had underratedperfect
-
was underratingprogressive
-
were underratingprogressive
-
had been underratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of underrate
Explanation
To underrate something is to underestimate its value. If critics underrate a great movie, they don't give it enough credit for its brilliant acting and well-written script. If most people underrate the Polish restaurant in your neighborhood, they'll be pleasantly surprised once they give it a try. High school football players tend to underrate the importance of gracefulness in their sport, and your math teacher may underrate the amount of time it takes you to do your calculus homework. The verb underrate has been around since the 1640's, although back then it was generally spelled with a hyphen: under-rate.
Vocabulary lists containing underrate
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.
See Examples For:
“I think a lot of people underrate my speed, my explosiveness,’’ he said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2024
“It made me realize that we often ignore and underrate highly populated places for ichthyological exploratory studies. We now understand not to leave any stones unturned.”
From Scientific American ● Mar. 25, 2022
Don’t underrate national college football writer media jealousy of me when it comes to their reaction to the Tennessee fan base.
From Fox News ● Oct. 17, 2021
Open at nearby Olympic, an alleged nadir people often reference because people underrate the value of parking lots.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2020
He accompanied them as far as the end of the wood with all the cheerfulness he could muster; only begging Hazel, out of hearing of the rest, not to underrate the danger.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
In general, I think this conversation underrates macroeconomic factors that could drive up the unemployment rate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Whenever anybody asks me about Balanchine, I think of what Jack Nicholson said about Stanley Kubrick: “Everyone pretty much acknowledges him as The Man, and I still think that underrates him.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
The description perhaps underrates her novel, but is a fitting epigraph for this play and its decorously debauched protagonist.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
Peterson finished with 16 yards on 11 carries, a line that obviously doesn’t stand out, but that somewhat underrates his contribution.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 5, 2021
If anything, he underrates himself, as in conversation he sometimes took a tone which made him appear to those who knew him slightly as below the average of the real Henry Adams.
From Confessions of a Book-Lover by Maurice Francis Egan
With that in mind, Grimes was asked if the Lakers are being viewed as an underrated defensive team on the perimeter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
There’s a difference between a film that becomes a cult classic because it’s genuinely underrated, and one that achieves that status through the unholy, rose-colored lens of social media obsession.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
Even better is Mr. Banderas in a quietly riveting performance, a career highlight for one of our most underrated actors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
For Italian travel expert and writer Alessia Armenise, supermarkets are an underrated gem.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
“I think pain is the most underrated emotion available to us,” the Count said.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
I’m not saying criminally underrating someone like Yamamoto should be prosecutable, I’m just wondering why anyone would?
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2026
“I think the industry is underrating and underinvesting given the scale,” Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman told me the other day during our appearance at a Paley Center for Media event in Menlo Park, Calif.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
It is possible that we are now underrating the Sooners, who have won four games by one score?
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2021
Or am I overrating my own importance as a parent and underrating the resilience kids can have?
From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2020
I cannot, however, avoid thinking that he goes too far in underrating the power of Instinct.
From The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. I by Charles Darwin
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
