Standard Lemma guide

third-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 64–80 guns across two gun decks, a complement of 500–650, and weighing approximately 1,750 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

Poor, shoddy; less than second-rate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bad, lousy, third-class, ass, 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, inferior, 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 third-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

of lesser quality than second-rate

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Real reading context

third-rate in complete knowledge articles