underperceive
underperceive verb: to perceive to a lesser degree than actually exists.
Verb
underperceive (third-person singular simple present underperceives, present participle underperceiving, simple past and past participle underperceived)
- To perceive to a lesser degree than actually exists.
- The problem with this belief is that the public does not "see" much of this violence, because it is not graphic enough to offend them, so the public is greatly underperceiving the amount of violence to which they are exposed.2003, W. James Potter, The 11 myths of media violence, page 211
Antonyms of underperceive
Forms of underperceive
| third-person singular present | underperceives |
|---|---|
| present participle | underperceiving |
| past participle | underperceived |
| past | underperceived |
Origin of underperceive
From under- + perceive.
Questions about underperceive
- What does underperceive mean?
- Underperceive means to perceive to a lesser degree than actually exists.
- What part of speech is underperceive?
- Underperceive is a verb.
- What is the past tense of underperceive?
- The past tense of underperceive is underperceived.
Words near underperceive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: underperceive (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-underperceive.wav.
Cite this entry: “underperceive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underperceive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.