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Narrator: Today's word is "undercutting" — the present participle of "undercut", pronounced /ˌʌn.dəˈkʌt.ɪŋ/.
Narrator: Undercutting is the act of selling cheaper than rivals, or continuously weakening something from beneath.
Narrator: In plain English, undercutting is the ongoing process of beating prices or steadily undermining a position.
Narrator: Because it's the -ing form, it stresses the activity in motion, not a single event.
Narrator: It's built from "under", beneath, and "cutting", the active form of "cut" — cutting from below.
Narrator: Note the doubled t before -ing, a regular spelling rule for short stressed syllables.
Narrator: In economics, undercutting describes a price war; in politics, a slow erosion of someone's authority.
Narrator: In tone it's everyday and competitive, often with a slightly critical, cut-throat edge.
Narrator: So remember: undercutting is the ongoing act of cutting from below — in price or in quiet rivalry.
Speaker A: There's been constant undercutting in the market all year.
Speaker B: Right, undercutting is when shops keep dropping prices to win sales.
Speaker A: Exactly. "The undercutting got out of hand" means a full price war.
Speaker B: And it has the other sense too — "undercutting his authority".
Speaker A: Yes, steadily weakening someone behind the scenes.
Speaker B: A common mistake is the spelling — double t, "undercutting".
Speaker A: Good catch. People often write just one t by mistake.
Speaker B: Close synonyms? "Underselling" for price, "undermining" for power.
Speaker A: And "price-cutting" when it's purely about cost.
Speaker B: So the undercutting hurt everyone's profits in the end.
Speaker A: A race nobody really wins.
Speaker B: That's the danger of undercutting.
Speaker B: Let's use "undercutting" in prompts to monitor ongoing price wars and erosion over time.
Speaker A: So "undercutting" signals a continuous process to track?
Speaker B: Exactly. For monitoring, you'd write:
Prompt: Build a monitor that detects ongoing undercutting by competitors. Track each price drop over weeks, so we can see whether the undercutting is a one-off or a sustained campaign.
Speaker B: The word "undercutting" tells the model to watch a trend, not just one moment.
Speaker A: Useful. What about a report?
Speaker B: Try this:
Prompt: Generate a weekly report on undercutting across our top products. Show which rivals are undercutting most often, so the team understands where the pressure is steadily building.
Speaker A: So patterns emerge.
Speaker B: Right. For a chart:
Prompt: Build a chart that visualises undercutting over the last quarter. Plot each undercutting event by date, so a rising line clearly warns us when a price war is heating up.
Speaker A: Very visual. What about the schema?
Speaker B: Here you go:
Prompt: Design a table to log undercutting activity: rival, product, old price, new price, date. Index by rival so we can measure each competitor's undercutting behaviour over time.
Speaker A: Could it forecast?
Speaker B: Yes:
Prompt: Predict where undercutting is likely next based on past patterns. Flag the products at highest risk, so we prepare before the undercutting begins rather than reacting late.
Speaker A: So "undercutting" means an ongoing price war.
Speaker B: Exactly — a strong word for tracking sustained competition.
Undercutting — meaning in Arabic & definition More U courses GL Dictionary