underwhelm

English · Thesaurus

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underwhelm

Where it comes from

From under- + whelm: a humorous coinage by novel negation of overwhelm first recorded in the 1950s.

verb underwhelms · underwhelming · underwhelmed

To fail to impress; to perform disappointingly. The fact that I even mentioned YouTube in the same paragraph as the middling TV company ViacomCBS and Twitter … well, that says something about how YouTube has underwhelmed for some time.

Opposite: overawe, overwhelm

Thesaurus

verb

Opposite: overawe, overwhelm

Translations

Every language

verb fail to impress

Español	decepcionar
Português	desapontar
Français	décevoir, laisser sur sa faim
Deutsch	enttäuschen, unterwältigen
Română	dezamăgi, decepționa, deziluziona
Русский	разочарова́ть razočarovátʹ, разочаро́вывать razočaróvyvatʹ

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MLA

"underwhelm." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/underwhelm. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

underwhelm. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/underwhelm

Chicago

"underwhelm." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/underwhelm.

BibTeX

@misc{underwhelm_2026,
  title = {underwhelm},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/underwhelm},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}