underrate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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underratesimple
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underratessimple
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have underratedperfect
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has underratedperfect
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am underratingprogressive
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are underratingprogressive
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is underratingprogressive
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have been underratingperfect progressive
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has been underratingperfect progressive
Past
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underratedsimple
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had underratedperfect
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was underratingprogressive
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were underratingprogressive
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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
Colin Farrell is wonderful in “Banshees,” but voters may underrate him when he’s playing a character who looks and talks like, well, Colin Farrell.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2023
“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
So you can’t underrate how massive this win was.
From Fox News ● Oct. 10, 2021
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
But for everyday driving, Mr. Miller underrates the rate of improvement in AI, and the extent to which the problems he identifies are amenable to machine learning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025
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
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
But it never underrates the obligation to try.
From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2018
As he underrates what is divine, so he has no very high standard for the actions of men, and he is liberal in admitting extenuating circumstances.
From The History of Freedom by Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron
It’s an underrated, retro way to discover songs you’ve never heard, songs by artists you love, and songs by artists you forgot you love.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
The fishing: The upper Potomac River near Leesburg is one of the more underrated fisheries on the East Coast, known for its smallmouth bass.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
MarketWatch Picks: The 2 most underrated retirement moves, according to Edelman’s chief financial planner.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
Downloading an album in-service for $10 might be an underrated way to support artists directly, and own the music.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
His heroes, notwithstanding the underrated John Field, were Mozart and Bach, composers in whose music dignity was everything.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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
People were underrating the amazing power of umbrage.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2013
Almost all the disasters that we have met with in Africa have been caused by underrating the enemy, or fancying security where there was danger.
From Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs of South Africa by Drayson, A. W. (Alfred Wilks)
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.
