overestimate
Americanverb (used with object)
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overestimates,
present (3rd person singular)
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overestimated,
past participle, past
-
overestimating
present participle
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to estimate at too high a value, amount, rate, or the like.
Don't overestimate the car's trade-in value.
-
to hold in too great esteem or to expect too much from.
Don't overestimate him—he's no smarter than you are.
noun
-
overestimates
plural
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overestimatesimple
-
overestimatessimple
-
have overestimatedperfect
-
has overestimatedperfect
-
am overestimatingprogressive
-
are overestimatingprogressive
-
is overestimatingprogressive
-
have been overestimatingperfect progressive
-
has been overestimatingperfect progressive
Past
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overestimatedsimple
-
had overestimatedperfect
-
was overestimatingprogressive
-
were overestimatingprogressive
-
had been overestimatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overestimate
Explanation
If you're confident your favorite team will win the championship even though the star player is injured, you may want to reconsider: don't let your team spirit cause you to overestimate, or overvalue, the team's abilities. When you estimate something, you make a calculation or a judgment of its value. So, when you overestimate, you assign too much value to the thing you are judging. If you overestimate how much time you have left to get to school, you could be late. Likewise, if you overestimate how prepared you are for a test, you might end up with a poor grade. This verb is the opposite of underestimate, or “to assign too little value.”
Vocabulary lists containing overestimate
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East of Eden
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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:
"But I also don't think we should overestimate the impact of one or two difficult cases," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
Some analysts caution the new measure might still overestimate inflation tied to computer software.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
It’s hard for investors to learn from their mistakes because they tend to underweight the importance of luck, overestimate the role of skill and “overinterpret what may be chance events,” says Alex Edmans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Confirming the upcoming meeting between Araghchi and Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "The importance of this conversation is hard to overestimate given how the situation around Iran and in the Middle East is developing."
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
I've spent so much time making sure I don't underestimate my opponents that I've forgotten it's just as dangerous to overestimate them as well.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
NBCUniversal executive Mark Marshall publicly criticized Nielsen, saying it overestimates streaming viewership at the expense of traditional media companies’ valuations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
While a partnership with one of the foremost AI developers would be “a vital long-term strategic move against AI search cannibalization,” the price action Thursday overestimates near-term accretion, Reese asserted.
From Barron's ● Mar. 6, 2026
For any shot, everyone overestimates the likelihood of it going in.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2024
The high demand surged global lithium production, but in recent months prices have significantly dipped due to a short-term oversupply in the metal and overestimates in electric vehicle purchases.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2024
Attention was called again and again to his great overestimates of Lee's army and to the paralysis that seemed to overcome him when he was in the presence of the enemy.
From The Star of Gettysburg A Story of Southern High Tide by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
The company overestimated demand, picked the wrong characters and made too many of dolls, said Gerrick Johnson, senior research analyst at Seaport Research Partners, which has a buy rating on Funko.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
But the strategists hold that these worries are overestimated.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
The wearables correctly identified REM cycles, but overestimated deep sleep—the hardest stage to identify without brain-wave readings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
He has admitted he overestimated how well his players would deal with the pressure of the Ashes, yet has to marry that with his determination to remove pressure from the dressing room.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
He was green, and he overestimated his resilience, but he was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
In a phone interview, Paul Staniland, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, cautions against overestimating the effect of public opinion surveys on U.S. foreign policy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
There's a risk of people overestimating a robot's capabilities, he says.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
However, Adobe’s buyback pledge indicates that management thinks the market is severely overestimating the impact of such AI on its business.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026
"We may be overestimating microplastics, but there should be none," said McNeil, senior author of the study and U-M professor of chemistry, macromolecular science and engineering, and the Program in the Environment.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 29, 2026
It was flattering, but Shady was highly overestimating my circle of friends.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
