Word.ws English Dictionary

underachiever

underachiever noun: one who underachieves, i.e. performs less well than expected.

Noun

underachiever (plural underachievers)

  1. One who underachieves, i.e. performs less well than expected.
    • Woody Allen has provided what is probably the best theological answer to the problem of evil: God is not evil; He is just an underachiever.1990 September 23, Wendy Doniger, “Why the Body Is Disgusting”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2022
    • Bart: (reading his permanent record) "Underachiever and proud of it." How old is this thing?2000, “Skinner's Sense of Snow”, in The Simpsons, season 12 (television production)
    Antonyms:
    overachiever

Examples of underachiever in a sentence

  • For the TLC undertaking, he employs only underachievers, cronies who have been hired for their ability to make the work site madcap and, therefore, filmable.2005 November 3, Ned Martel, “The Unlikely Progress of a Barely Motivated Underachiever”, in The New York Times, archived from the original...
  • This unsung, underrated, under-appreciated / The one them underachievers had underestimated / Finally graduated, I'm one of the most hated2010, “Doin' It Again”, in How I Got Over, performed by The Roots:

Antonyms of underachiever

Forms of underachiever

pluralunderachievers
alternative formunder-achiever

Origin of underachiever

From underachieve + -er or under- + achiever.

Questions about underachiever

What does underachiever mean?
Underachiever means one who underachieves, i.e. performs less well than expected.
How do you use underachiever in a sentence?
For the TLC undertaking, he employs only underachievers, cronies who have been hired for their ability to make the work site madcap and, therefore, filmable.
What part of speech is underachiever?
Underachiever is a noun.
What is the plural of underachiever?
The plural of underachiever is underachievers.

Words near underachiever in the dictionary

  1. underacetylations
  2. underachieve
  3. underachieved
  4. underachievement
  5. underachievements
  6. underachiever
  7. underachievers
  8. underachieves
  9. underachieving
  10. underacinated
  11. underacknowledged

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underachiever (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underachiever.wav.

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