underrate
Americanverb (used with object)
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underrates,
present (3rd person singular)
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underrated,
past participle, past
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underrating
present participle
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:
“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
When it comes to Lloyd Webber’s musical audacity, it can sometimes feel as if it’s not just rock snobs that underrate “Superstar,” but also self-professed musical theater lovers.
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2021
So you can’t underrate how massive this win was.
From Fox News ● Oct. 10, 2021
I think we all underrate Chris Carson’s value to the Seahawks offense.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 14, 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
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
I can forgive, though I must needs deplore, The noble pride which underrates itself It robs thee of the happiness of life.
From Iphigenia in Tauris by Anna Swanwick
This city may be the South’s most underrated getaway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Despite this, over the past decade, he has quietly become one of the conservative legal movement’s most influential operators, making Paoletta an underrated political power in his own right.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
His passing skills are also somewhat underrated because he is the embodiment of a dribble-first winger.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
MarketWatch Picks: The 2 most underrated retirement moves, according to Edelman’s chief financial planner.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 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
Within the last forty years, there has grown up a fashion, among our historical writers, of defaming his character and underrating his productions.
From Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather A Reply by Charles Wentworth Upham
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.
