Standard Lemma guide

second-rate

adj · noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

adj

Meaning 1

Of a Royal Navy ship of the line in the Napoleonic Era: having 80–98 guns across three gun decks, a complement of 700–750, and weighing approximately 2,200 tons burthen.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, historical, not-comparable

Topics: government, military, nautical, politics, transport, war

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of mediocre quality; not first-rate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: inferior, medium-quality, second-class, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap, cheap and nasty, cheapshit, cheesy, chintzy, coffee-and, crap, crappo, crappy, craptastic, crapperific, craptabulous, craptacular, cruddy, crummy, dogwater, drecky, flimsy, fourth-rate, gash, garbage, god-awful, lousy, low, low-grade, low-quality, low-rent, made in China, mid, naughty, one-star, poor, poor man's, pound-shop, punk, rinky-dink, ropy, rubbish, sad, schlocky, scrubby, second-rate, shoddy, slazy, slight, slim, subpar, shit, shite, shitty, substandard, ticky-tacky, tenth-rate, third-rate, tin-pot, trash, trashy, under par, woeful, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A second-rate ship of the line.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, historical

Topics: government, military, nautical, politics, transport, war

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective satellite

Meaning 4

moderate to inferior in quality

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • they improved the quality from mediocre to above average

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: mediocre

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

23 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: второка́чествен (vtorokáčestven) — of mediocre quality
  • Bulgarian: второразре́ден (vtororazréden) — of mediocre quality
  • Chinese Mandarin: 二流 (èrliú) — of mediocre quality
  • Dutch: tweedeklas — of mediocre quality
  • Finnish: sekunda — of mediocre quality
  • French: de second ordre — of mediocre quality
  • French: de second rang — of mediocre quality
  • Georgian: მეორეხარისხოვანი (meorexarisxovani) — of mediocre quality
  • Georgian: მეორე ხარისხის (meore xarisxis) — of mediocre quality
  • Georgian: მდარე (mdare) — of mediocre quality
  • Georgian: საშუალო (sašualo) — of mediocre quality
  • Italian: scadente — of mediocre quality
  • Japanese: 二流 (niryū) — of mediocre quality
  • Latin: secundārius — of mediocre quality
  • Norwegian Bokmål: annenrangs — of mediocre quality
  • Polish: drugorzędny — of mediocre quality
  • Polish: pośledni — of mediocre quality
  • Russian: второсортный (vtorosortnyj) — of mediocre quality
  • Spanish: de baja estofa — of mediocre quality
  • Spanish: de chichinabo — of mediocre quality
  • Spanish: de pacotilla — of mediocre quality
  • Spanish: de tres al cuarto — of mediocre quality
  • Spanish: segundón — of mediocre quality
Real reading context

second-rate in complete knowledge articles