underweight

underweight adjective: of an inappropriately or unusually low weight.

Adjective

underweight (comparative more underweight, superlative most underweight)

Of an inappropriately or unusually low weight.
- He's so underweight he's had to buy smaller clothes.
- He's thirty pounds underweight.
Not too heavy for an intended purpose.
- The suitcase is just slightly underweight; I'll let it on the plane.
Being less invested in a particular area than market wisdom suggests.
- The fund is underweight in mining.
- "It's a long-run trend of foreign investors -- typically being underweight the banking sector in Australia," Mr Baker said.2011, Murdoch, S. Foreigners back for Aussie stocks, The Australian

underweight (countable and uncountable, plural underweights)

(uncountable) The state or quality of being underweight.
- Underweight reflects the body’s thinness, but the term does not necessarily imply the nature and causes of underweight.1996, United States Institute of Medicine Committee on Scientific Evaluation of WIC Nutrition Risk Criteria, WIC Nutrition Risk Criteria: A Scientific Assessment, National Academies Press, →ISBN...
(countable) An underweight person.
(countable) An underweight investment.
- Further, structured managers usually attempt to hit their lower targets by relying on a relatively large number of small active deviations (i.e., overweights and underweights).2004, Bob Litterman, Modern Investment Management: An Equilibrium Approach, page 198
- Consider a conventional long-only portfolio with underweights on holdings the investment manager does not like and overweights on holdings the manager does like.2011, Peter L. Bernstein, Capital Ideas Evolving, page 230

underweight (third-person singular simple present underweights, present participle underweighting, simple past and past participle underweighted)

(transitive) To underestimate the weight of.
(transitive) To give insufficient weight to (a consideration); to underestimate the importance of.
(transitive) To invest in less than conventional wisdom would dictate.
- Although the portfolio overweights the German market, it underweights German marks.2009, Philip Lawton, Todd Jankowski, Investment Performance Measurement, page 419

எடைக்குறைவு, குறைஎடை

اوسط سے کم وزن, کم وزن, وزن کی کمی

ಬಹಳ ಕಡಿಮೆ ತೂಕವಿರುವ, ಪೀಚಾಗಿರುವ

My cat looks underweight, so I'll fatten him up with higher-calorie cat food.
I was thirteen, short, underweight, flat-chested, spindly-legged, disaster-permed and haircutted, and my face was growing around my nose.
It isn't the city bakers who are guilty of making underweight loaves or overcharging for them; it's the women baxters.

Adjective
comparative	more underweight
superlative	most underweight
Noun
plural	underweights
Verb
third-person singular present	underweights
present participle	underweighting
past participle	underweighted
past	underweighted

From under- + weight.

What does underweight mean?: Underweight means of an inappropriately or unusually low weight.
What is underweight in Tamil?: Underweight in Tamil is எடைக்குறைவு, குறைஎடை. See Underweight meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is underweight?: Underweight can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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