outrated

Outrated is the past tense and past participle of the verb outrate. Outrate means to rate, estimate, or value something more highly than another; to surpass in rating or esteem. The construction uses the prefix out- to signal surpassing and rate to denote assessment or valuation. The term is relatively uncommon in everyday speech and is more commonly found in formal, literary, or evaluative prose.

In usage, outrate is a transitive verb requiring an object being rated and a reference point for comparison. Items or individuals that are outrated are deemed to have a higher rating than their counterparts. Because outrate is not widely used in modern journalism or casual writing, many writers opt for synonyms such as outrank, outperform, surpass, or overrate depending on the precise sense of comparison intended.

Contexts in which outrate or outrated might appear include historical analyses, critical rankings, or formal evaluations where authors discuss relative esteem or scoring across options. The past participle outrated can be used in passive constructions, as in a sentence describing how one work was outrated by others in a competition, or how a product was outrated in a market comparison.

Related terms include outrank, outpace, overrate, and outshine. Outrage, though similarly prefixed, is unrelated in meaning and should not be confused with outrate or outrated. As a rare word, outrate often has specialized or rhetorical uses rather than serving as everyday vocabulary.