underperform
/ˈʌndɚpɚfˌɔɹm/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.36 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To underachieve; to fail to reach standards or expectations, especially with respect to a financial investment.
Example Sentences
- "Even outside the Anglo-Saxon world, underperforming public companies have become vulnerable to hostile takeover."
- "She inhabits the prose’s terrible serenity and glacial horror — the translator’s hand never overwhelms or underperforms."
- "Jesus' finishing has been one of the main concerns - since the start of last season the 23-year-old has underperformed his Premier League expected goals tally by 6.97goals (in short, he has scored seven fewer goals than would be expected from the chances presented to him)."
- "Former HS2 Ltd chairman Sir David Higgins provided a timely reminder of why Britain needs HS2 in a letter to The Times on September 25, in which he asked: "Why are so few FTSE 100 companies based outside the South East? Why is there such a brain drain of graduates from the North? Why do northern cities underperform compared with their European counterparts?"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Indo-European *-tér Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér Proto-Indo-European *h₂én Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *-dʰi ? Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dʰí Proto-Indo-European *-ér Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dʰér Proto-Germanic *under Proto-West Germanic *undar Old English under- Middle English under- English under- English perform English underperform From under- + perform.