Underachiever

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who underachieves, i.e. performs less well than expected.

    "Woody Allen has provided what is probably the best theological answer to the problem of evil: God is not evil; He is just an underachiever."

  2. 2
    a student who does not perform as well as expected or as well as the IQ indicates wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bookwormgrindmuggernonachieverslouchunderperformer

Example

More examples

"Tom has been an underachiever all his life."

Etymology

From underachieve + -er or under- + achiever.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.