Contents
- 1 English
- 1.1 Pronunciation
- 1.2 Adjective
- 1.2.1 Alternative forms
- 1.2.2 Translations
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈlɛs ðən ˈstɛ.lə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈlɛs ðən ˈstɛl.ɚ/
- Hyphenation: less-than-stel‧lar
Adjective[edit]
less-than-stellar (comparative form only)
- (slang, sarcastic) Mediocre; not satisfactory; not very good, poor; not meeting standards or expectations.
1931, Music and Dance, volume 21, Melbourne, Vic.: Australian Musical News Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 27, column 2:
Some years ago there were hundreds of musicians of ability, but of less stellar renown, who toured the country, giving performances at less than stellar fees.
1970, Hardware Age, volume 205, New York, N.Y.: David Williams Co., →OCLC, page 8, column 1:
See AlsoThe meaning of Stellar – everything you ever wanted to know and moreWhat is the opposite of sky?Yet the economic seers are at it again, seemingly unabashed by their somewhat less than stellar performances in 1969.
2012, Linda A. Jenkins, “What is Social Lending?”, in Creative Financing: How to Get a Small Business Loan without a Banker, Gold Alliance Group, →ISBN, page 1:
Where a bank may automatically reject any borrower based on a bad credit score, this is not true for all social lending networks. You can still have a less than stellar score and obtain funding as long as you can convince a peer tha your project is worthy or your business model is strong.
2014, Ron Weisner, Alan Goldsher, “The Jacksons”, in Listen Out Loud: A Life in Music—Managing McCartney, Madonna, and Michael Jackson, Guildford, Conn.: Lyons Press, →ISBN, page 83:
The Jacksons' less-than-stellar sales led to less-than-stellar bookings, then the less-than-stellar bookings led to no bookings.
2015, David Kosař, “Selecting Strasbourg Judges: A Critique”, in Michal Bobek, editor, Selecting Europe’s Judges: A Critical Review of the Appointment Procedures to the European Courts, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 157:
Instead of discussing how to attract top candidates, states and PACE [the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] blame each other for being responsible for electing less-than-stellar judges. […] At the same time, less-than-stellar candidates will get the message that they indeed have a chance. In other words, top candidates will not apply as the PACE is unpredictable and unprincipled, whereas less-than-stellar candidates will apply precisely because the PACE is unpredictable and unprincipled.
2015, Dan Immergluck, “The Housing Finance Debate”, in Preventing the Next Mortgage Crisis: The Meltdown, the Federal Response, and the Future of Housing in America, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 136:
In effect, risk-based pricing creates a penalty for those in the mortgage market with less wealth and less-than-stellar credit. Other estimates on the interest-rate premiums that borrowers with less-than-stellar credit would face exceed the conservative estimates presented in figure 5.3.
2016 November 18, Daniel Golden, “How did ‘less than stellar’ high school student Jared Kushner get into Harvard?: Donald Trump’s son-in-law was accepted into the Ivy League university in the wake of a $2.5m pledge made by his parents”, in The Guardian[1], London, archived from the original on 19 November 2017:
I also quoted administrators at Jared [Kushner]'s high school, who described him as a less-than-stellar student and expressed dismay at Harvard's decision.
2024 May 4, Simon Tisdall, “Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, the double act that is steering the EU ever rightwards”, in The Observer[2], →ISSN:
Most telling is her co-opting of Ursula von der Leyen, the less than stellar European Commission president who covets an undeserved second five-year term.
Alternative forms[edit]
Translations[edit]
mediocre — see mediocre
not satisfactory — see unsatisfactory
not very good — see poor
not meeting standards or expectations
