Word.ws English Dictionary

understudy

Syllables: un·der·studyUK/ˈʌndəstʌdi/US/ˈʌndɚstʌdi/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

understudy verb: to study or know a role to such an extent as to be able to replace the normal performer when required.

Verb

understudy (third-person singular simple present understudies, present participle understudying, simple past and past participle understudied)

  1. (transitive) To study or know a role to such an extent as to be able to replace the normal performer when required.
  2. (transitive) To act as an understudy (to someone).
  3. (transitive) To act in a similar manner to some known person.
    • That lean gentleman had apparently understudied Pharaoh of old and hardened his heart.1935, Owen Conquest, Morny's Master Stroke

Noun

understudy (plural understudies)

  1. A performer who understudies; a standby for a study.
    • For Wynne-Edwards, the role of the outcasts in the welfare of the group is to wait in the wings as understudies, ready to step into the shoes of any territory holder who dies on the main stage of group reproduction.1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, pages 153–154
    Synonyms:
    standby

understudy meaning in Malayalam and Kannada

understudy in Malayalam

substitute, stand-in, replacement
പകരക്കാരൻ, സ്ഥാനാപന്നൻ, പകരം, ബദലാൾ, ബദൽക്കാരൻ, പകരം നിൽക്കുന്നവവൻ

understudy in Kannada

ಮಾರಾಳು

Synonyms of understudy

Forms of understudy

Verb
third-person singular presentunderstudies
present participleunderstudying
past participleunderstudied
pastunderstudied
Noun
pluralunderstudies

Past tense of understudy: understudied

Origin of understudy

From under- + study.

Questions about understudy

What does understudy mean?
Understudy means to study or know a role to such an extent as to be able to replace the normal performer when required.
What is understudy in Malayalam?
Understudy in Malayalam is പകരക്കാരൻ, സ്ഥാനാപന്നൻ, പകരം. See Understudy meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is understudy?
Understudy can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce understudy?
Understudy is pronounced /ˈʌndɚstʌdi/ (US).
What is the past tense of understudy?
The past tense of understudy is understudied.

Words near understudy in the dictionary

  1. understructures
  2. understructuring
  3. understrung
  4. understudied
  5. understudies
  6. understudy
  7. understudying
  8. understuffed
  9. understyled
  10. undersubscribe
  11. undersubscribed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: understudy (page history and authors); understudy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); understudy (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ncalif-undertusdy.ogg, en-au-understudy.ogg.

Cite this entry: “understudy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/understudy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.