underfunded
Britishadjective
Explanation
Anything that's underfunded doesn't have enough money. An underfunded college student can't afford textbooks — or pizza. When a group or organization is funded, it's provided with the money, or funds it needs to function properly. Being underfunded means having an insufficient amount of cash on hand. An underfunded school doesn't have enough money to pay its staff and teachers, and it might have to eliminate art and music classes. If your lemonade stand is underfunded and you can't afford cups, it's unlikely to be a successful business!
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.
The international community has raised $1.5 billion to support the response in the DRC, whose healthcare system is chronically underfunded.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
She understands that while hospitals may be underfunded, the administration is often quite well-funded.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
As a result, many working-class Korean and Latino immigrant households lived side by side and often confronted similar challenges, including substandard housing conditions, landlord abuses and underfunded public schools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
It seems more likely that transferring substantial resources from the profit-making entity to the nonprofit would leave both underfunded and weakened.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
The museum was a dusty, moldy, underfunded, neglected mess.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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.
