overestimate

1 of 2

verb

over·​es·​ti·​mate ˌō-vər-ˈe-stə-ˌmāt How to pronounce overestimate (audio)
overestimated; overestimating

transitive verb

: to estimate or value (someone or something) too highly
… the senator had been so responsible about his potential tax liabilities that he had substantially overestimated what he owed the government.David Burnham
… our habit of overestimating our knowledge and underestimating our ignorance …David A. Shaywitz
The emotional power of this reunion can't be overestimated.Joe Klein
"I mean that I am afraid I overestimated him. I don't think that he is a painter of the first rank."Henry James

overestimate

2 of 2

noun

over·​es·​ti·​mate ˌō-vər-ˈe-stə-mət How to pronounce overestimate (audio)
plural overestimates
: an estimate that is too high
overestimates of the company's future profits
Diamond still attacks the growth projections that the utilities have put forward, arguing that the … figures were overestimatesNorman Boucher

Examples of overestimate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Yes, the polls in GOP primary contests have slightly overestimated Trump’s support. Matthew Continetti, National Review, 2 Mar. 2024 In advocating an uncompromising containment of China, Republicans may be overestimating the United States’ ability to prevail in the event of a confrontation. Niall Ferguson, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024 Sean Westwood, director of the Polarization Research Center at Dartmouth University, found in a 2022 study that support for violence was overestimated by a factor of six. Marshall Ingwerson, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Feb. 2024 Companies often overestimate how much new board members understand about governance. Melanie Hughes, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024 In 2005, detailed lab experiments showed that pulse oximeters frequently overestimated blood oxygen levels in patients with more skin pigmentation. Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2024 In the late 19th century attempts to determine this constant overestimated it significantly. Luke Caldwell, Scientific American, 16 Jan. 2024 One Tesla driver seemingly overestimated the car’s abilities by taking it on a snowmobile trail through the Adirondacks, according to investigators in New York. Mark Price, Miami Herald, 7 Feb. 2024 Moreover, news reports have found that some programs overestimate how much carbon is being captured or engage in questionable practices. Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 6 Feb. 2024
Noun
When people are shown polling data that corrects this overestimate, their own support for anti-democratic measures drops by more than a third. Marshall Ingwerson, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Feb. 2024 Kimmel added that Rodgers suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which states that people with limited competence overestimate their skills or intelligence. Mike Freeman, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2024 In a Bain & Co. survey of 352 global executives, 70% said most M&A deals overestimate synergies—a major reason deals disappoint. Mike Keech, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023 These overestimates may just be psychological flukes. Politifact Staff Writer, Dallas News, 17 July 2023 Efficiencies are often measured by plotting a curve of current against voltage—but for perovskites, the curves differ depending on whether the voltage is increasing or decreasing, an anomaly known as hysteresis that may have led to overestimates of perovskite performance in the past. IEEE Spectrum, 7 Jan. 2015 And even those lackluster stats could be an overestimate, because they’re drawn from the National Immunization Surveys, which is done by phone and so reflects the answers of people willing to take federal surveyors’ calls. Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2023 The studios said just after the talks broke off that the per-subscriber charge would cost them $800 million annually, a figure SAG-AFTRA said was a vast overestimate. Andrew Dalton, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2023 Yet even if each patient generated a book’s worth of text (a gross overestimate), this is far less data than what is currently used to train existing foundation models. Jenna Wiens, STAT, 25 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'overestimate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Verb

1797, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1828, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of overestimate was in 1797

Dictionary Entries Near overestimate

Cite this Entry

“Overestimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overestimate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

overestimate

verb
over·​es·​ti·​mate
ˌō-və-ˈres-tə-ˌmāt
overestimated; overestimating
1
: to estimate as being more than the actual size, quantity, or number
overestimated how many would attend
2
: to place too high a value on : overrate
overestimated his abilities
overestimate
-mət
noun
overestimation
-ˌres-tə-ˈmā-shən
noun

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