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:
“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
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
"What are you doing? If he's going to help you, he has to know what you're capable of. Don't underrate yourself," says Peeta.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
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 John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron Acton
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
Meanwhile, SAS could be “an underrated gem” as its subsidiary GlobalWafers is expanding globally to benefit from growing silicon wafer demand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
But if the quiet parts are filler, maybe filler’s underrated.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
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
At the same time, Salmon and Lewis-Kraus appear to be overestimating the cost of failure in Silicon Valley—and underrating its value.
From Slate ● May 27, 2014
We cannot have the slightest interest, logical, sentimental, or other, in depreciating or in anywise underrating the New World civilizations.
From The Color Line A Brief in Behalf of the Unborn by William Benjamin Smith
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.
