raté

See also: Appendix:Variations of "rate"

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French raté, past participle form of rater (“to miss; to fail”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹæ.teɪ/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æteɪ
• Homophones: ratée, ratées, ratés
• Hyphenation: ra‧té

Noun

raté (plural ratés)

1. an unsuccessful person; a failure
   • 1970 [1888], Henry James, chapter VII, in Partial Portraits‎^[1], University of Michigan Press, page 230:

     We seem to assist at the terrible soirées where the ratés exhibit their talents (M. Moronval is of course a raté) [...]

   • 1968, John Raymond, chapter 7, in Simenon in court‎^[2], Hamish Hammond, page 152:

     Certainly he was a raté, as I’ve heard many declare since his death, but he was a lucid and conscious raté, one who had deliberately chosen this condition.

Adjective

raté (not comparable)

1. (postpositive) (of a person or thing) failed; disappointing
   • 1968, István Deák, chapter II, in Weimar Germany's left-wing intellectuals: A political history of the Weltbühne and its circle‎^[3], University of California Press, page 60:

     This was nostalgia on the part of an artist raté; in fact, Die Weltbühne was as full of politics and economics in 1926 as it was six years later.

   • 1993 [1992], Julian More, chapter 3, in More about France: A sentimental journey‎^[4], Pan Books Limited, page 40:

     We were already notorious — the British honeymoon couple whose marriage was raté before it had begun, the husband who went raving on the beach at night to expiate some terrible shame.

Usage notes

• Raté is the masculine noun and ratée is the feminine, following the same pattern as in words such as divorcé/divorcée, fiancé/fiancée, and protégé/protégée.
• As an adjective, raté is used similarly to manqué, but conveys a more forceful sense of dissatisfaction or failure.

Coordinate terms

• (feminine) ratée
• (feminine plural) ratées
• (masculine plural) ratés

Anagrams

• 'eart, Ater, Reta, aret, arte-, rate, tare, tear, tera-

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.te/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

Adjective

raté (feminine ratée, masculine plural ratés, feminine plural ratées)

1. (informal) failed, screwed up
2. (informal) missed

Participle

raté (feminine ratée, masculine plural ratés, feminine plural ratées)

1. past participle of rater

Noun

raté m (plural ratés)

1. (colloquial, derogatory, of a person) a failure, a washout, a loser

   Synonym: tocard

Further reading

• “raté”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• âtre, tare, taré

Ladin

Verb

raté m (pl ratés, f rateda, fpl ratedes)

1. alternative form of rater
2. past participle of rater

Louisiana Creole

Etymology

From French rater (“to miss”), compare Haitian Creole rate.

Verb

raté

1. to miss

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales