underdeveloped
/ʌndədɪˈvɛləpt
/adjective
1Not fully developed: underdeveloped kidneys the community services are underfunded and underdeveloped...
- The old man watched her go, a slight underdeveloped girl, wearing a ragged pair of boys' shorts too big for her, a lustrous mop of untidy hair falling in glossy black waves almost to her bony shoulders.
- Some of the beats aren't bad, but there's just nothing exceptional about this album - no hooks and slightly underdeveloped voices - nothing really to keep you coming back.
- The real problem is tiny, underdeveloped lungs.
1.1(Of a country or region) not advanced economically: a recurring issue in all underdeveloped countries is a lack of credit...
- The burden of debt is made even worse when it is considered that the area is one of the most economically underdeveloped regions in South Africa.
- Citizens of economically underdeveloped countries typically have shorter life expectancies than do citizens of the developed countries.
- Typically, students are not taught about the global economy and the impact of free trade on underdeveloped countries.
2(Of a photographic film) not developed sufficiently to give a normal image.
Derivatives
underdevelopment
/ noun ...- There is also the unfair economic, trade and financial regimes that favour the developed world and in more than one way contribute to perpetuate the underdevelopment that plagues the region.
- A pledge for a better tomorrow, a commitment by leaders to liberate the continent from what they call a malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion.
- At the same time there was a naïve belief that the problem of underdevelopment and poverty would find an easy, if not an automatic, solution with the dawn of independence.