undercount

American

[uhn-der-kount, uhn-der-kount] / ˌʌn dərˈkaʊnt, ˈʌn dərˌkaʊnt /

verb (used with object)

to count less than the full number or amount of.

The mayor claimed the census had undercounted the city's population.

noun

a count or total that is less than the actual number or amount.

Etymology

Origin of undercount

First recorded in 1950–55; under- + count ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The figures that exist likely undercount, overlooking locals born to an American parent, students on long-term visas or others exploiting a common loophole: arriving on 90-day tourist visas, leaving for a day to reset and returning for another three months.

From The Wall Street Journal

But that toll is a dramatic undercount.

From Salon

That’s all but certain to be an undercount, and by a wide margin.

From The Wall Street Journal

“If there’s an undercount and that undercount correlates with need, you’d be systematically pushing resources away from need.”

From Los Angeles Times

It noted that extrapolating the undercount in the three neighborhoods, which account for about 10% of the entire homeless population in a typical year, would indicate that up to 7,900 homeless people living in the city of Los Angeles may be missing in the 2025 count.

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023