Meaning & use
substandard
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Meanings
adjectivecomparableformal
Not good enough to meet the usual or required level of quality.
Grammar: Goes before a noun or after be: substandard housing; the work was substandard.
Patterns
- be substandard
- substandard work
Inspectors closed the restaurant for substandard hygiene.
Residents complained about substandard housing in the old block.
The report found the building materials were substandard.
adjectivebefore a nountechnicaldisapproving
Used of language that differs from what is accepted as correct or proper in formal speech and writing.
Grammar: Used in linguistics before a noun: substandard speech. Some speakers find it insulting.
Patterns
- substandard English
Older grammar books called such usage substandard English.
Modern linguists avoid the word substandard because it judges dialects.
Common combinations
- substandard housing
- Families lived in substandard housing without heating.
- substandard care
- The hospital was criticized for substandard care.
- substandard materials
- Substandard materials caused the bridge to crack.
- substandard performance
- The manager spoke about the team's substandard performance.
- deemed substandard
- The batch was deemed substandard and recalled.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inferior
- Inferior compares one thing with another, while substandard compares it with a fixed standard or rule.
- inadequate
- Inadequate stresses not being enough for a purpose, and substandard stresses poor quality.
- shoddy
- Shoddy is more informal and critical, implying careless workmanship that someone should be ashamed of.
- poor
- Poor is the everyday word and is less formal and less tied to measured standards than substandard.
Opposites
Word family
- standard noun
- a level of quality or a required measure
- standard adjective
- normal or usual, or meeting the accepted level
- standardize verb
- to make things match a common standard
- standardization noun
- the process of making things uniform
Commonly confused: substandard or sub-par?
substandard vs sub-par
Sub-par is similar in meaning but comes from golf and is a little more informal. Substandard is the usual word in reports, law and inspections.
Practice
Inspectors condemned the flats because the wiring was ___ and posed a fire risk.
Choose one answer.
Substandard means below the required quality, which fits a condemned building. Outstanding, adequate and superior would not explain why inspectors condemned it.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “substandard”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.