- below standard or less than adequate: substandard housing conditions.
- noting or pertaining to a dialect or variety of a language or a feature of usage that is often considered by others to mark its user as uneducated; nonstandard.
- Insurance.
- not measuring up to an insurer's regular standards in undertaking risks: a substandard risk.
- pertaining to insurance written to cover substandard risks.
- below an established or required standard
- another word for nonstandard
