adj · verb · 3 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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CMU ARPABET:AH2 N D ER0 P AW1 ER0 D
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
adj
Meaning 1
Having insufficient power for its operation.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
1925, Stewart Edward White, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 2, [...] occasionally a flap-skitter duck, making up his mind to go a-visiting, gave himself over to the serious business of flight. Flap-flap-flap, skitter, skitter, skitter, went he, taxi-ing along like an underpowered airplane, leaving behind him incredible churnings of wake.
2023, David Shariatmadari, “‘I hope I’m wrong’: the co-founder of DeepMind on how AI threatens to reshape life as we know it,” The Guardian, 2 September, 2023, Last month he [Mustafa Suleyman] was invited to the White House alongside Amazon, Microsoft and Google to sign up to an oversight regime, albeit a voluntary one. Given tech’s poor record at self-regulation, this may seem a little underpowered.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
adj
Meaning 2
Not powerful enough.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: games, gaming
Examples
Wizards are underpowered even though they start off with two magic spells.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
verb
Meaning 3
simple past and past participle of underpower
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: form-of, participle, past
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h1én Proto-Indo-European *h1entér Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dhí Proto-Indo-European *-ér Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dhér Proto-Germanic *under Proto-West Germanic *undar Old English under- Middle English under- English under- English powered English underpowered From under- + powered.
From underpower + -ed.
Across languages
Translations
5 source translations are retained for this English entry.
