subpar
UK/sʌbˈpɑː/US/səbˈpɑɹ/
subpar adjective: of less than a traditional or accepted standard.
Adjective
subpar (not comparable)
- Of less than a traditional or accepted standard.
- Bob's grasp of English was subpar.
- They and their siblings were the only black kids at their respective Catholic schools in middle America. They were treated as subpar.2014 September 12, Cara Reedy, “My life as a little person”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2016
- Synonyms:
- below par, second-rate, under par, ass, bad, base, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap
- Synonym of below par.
- Synonyms:
- below par
- Trading at a price below face value.
Synonyms of subpar
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Origin of subpar
From sub- + par.
Questions about subpar
- What does subpar mean?
- Subpar means of less than a traditional or accepted standard.
- What part of speech is subpar?
- Subpar is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce subpar?
- Subpar is pronounced /sʌbˈpɑː/ (UK).
Words near subpar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: subpar (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “subpar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subpar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.