stumble
Americanverb (used without object)
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stumbles,
present (3rd person singular)
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stumbled,
past participle, past
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stumbling
present participle
-
to strike the foot against something, as in walking or running, so as to stagger or fall; trip.
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to walk or go unsteadily.
to stumble down a dark passage.
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to make a slip, mistake, or blunder, especially a sinful one.
to stumble over a question; to stumble and fall from grace.
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to proceed in a hesitating or blundering manner, as in action or speech (often followed byalong ).
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to discover or meet with accidentally or unexpectedly (usually followed by on, upon, oracross ).
They stumbled on a little village.
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to falter or hesitate, as at an obstacle to progress or belief.
verb (used with object)
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stumbles,
present (3rd person singular)
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stumbled,
past participle, past
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stumbling
present participle
-
to cause to stumble; trip.
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to give pause to; puzzle or perplex.
noun
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stumbles
plural
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the act of stumbling.
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a moral lapse or error.
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a slip or blunder.
verb
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to trip or fall while walking or running
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to walk in an awkward, unsteady, or unsure way
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to make mistakes or hesitate in speech or actions
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to come (across) by accident
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to commit a grave mistake or sin
noun
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a false step, trip, or blunder
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the act of stumbling
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stumblesimple
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stumblessimple
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have stumbledperfect
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has stumbledperfect
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am stumblingprogressive
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are stumblingprogressive
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is stumblingprogressive
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have been stumblingperfect progressive
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has been stumblingperfect progressive
Past
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stumbledsimple
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had stumbledperfect
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was stumblingprogressive
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were stumblingprogressive
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had been stumblingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stumble
1275–1325; Middle English stumblen; cognate with Norwegian stumla to grope and stumble in the dark; akin to stammer
Explanation
To stumble means to nearly fall by tripping or missing a step. When you walk over uneven cobblestones, it’s easy to stumble, so please be careful. While stumble often means to nearly fall, it can also mean to make a misstep of a different kind. If you stumble over your words, you speak in a stuttering confused manner. Politicians make so many public decisions that they're bound to stumble — make a mistake — occasionally. When you stumble on rare mushrooms, i.e. come across them unexpectedly, be sure have the species verified before you eat them.
Vocabulary lists containing stumble
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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Steve Jobs's Commencement Address (2005)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There is this idea that through market-controlling systems like the draft and the salary cap, any team, no matter how minor or shabby, may stumble into a transcendent talent and anoint a dynasty.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026
Plus, Asian tech companies stumble and Moderna’s second act.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Visitors at Boulder Beach would stumble on human remains on three different occasions from July to August 2022 that authorities said all belonged to the same person, Claude Russell Pensinger, a Las Vegas resident.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
While watching a film is something you could do back home, she says people might stumble on an old theatre which is "still a part of the history of that city".
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
I stumble up the bank, trying to move fast, but the water keeps sloshing out of my shoes.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
One evening, poring through the picturesque archives at the Yale Club while researching her monograph on memory and mind palace theory, Béatrice stumbles upon a curious audiotape.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
Following those stumbles, GoPro shuttered its entertainment division to cut costs, as advertising and sponsorship revenues didn’t pan out.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
The stumbles add to a string of struggles in the meal-kit industry since the boom times of the pandemic receded.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
With Pompeii’s sun blacked out, he stumbles around in the dark with a flashlight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Max gasps, his hand clapping over his chest, and stumbles back.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
He stumbled out of bed in his underwear and down the hall to his darkened living room.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
It was hours before he stumbled onto a fire hydrant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
But Alpine have stumbled since, until finally showing signs of a revival this season, following Renault's decision to abandon its F1 engine project and switch to Mercedes customer engines.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Earlier this year, famed energy trader John Arnold stumbled on a supersimple portfolio — 50% technology, 50% energy —and, honestly, it’s hard to argue with, with a 37% year-to-date advance, according to MarketWatch’s latest calculations.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
They avoided other clumps of blackened trees just in case they stumbled into more holes, but each time Owen saw a burned-out denning site, he felt a pang of sadness.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
If “Backrooms” was all about stumbling onto a place humans aren’t supposed to go, “Chronovisor” puts us exactly where we need to be.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
A stumbling block we’re likely to encounter sooner is the G in AGI, or artificial general intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
"I was a party planner for over 10 years and ... I was very sustainably focused. The final stumbling block for me was the balloon waste," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
After stumbling, the Nasdaq accelerated, with its gain in Bespoke’s indexed series reaching 592.5% in March 2000.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
She was almost out of sight now in among the trees, as Mutti came stumbling back towards us.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
