underestimate

[uhn-der-es-tuh-meyt, uhn-der-es-tuh-mit, -meyt]

verb (used with object)

underestimated, underestimating 

1. to estimate at too low a value, rate, or the like.

   Synonyms: miscalculate, misjudge, underrate, undervalue

verb (used without object)

underestimated, underestimating 

1. to make an estimate lower than that which would be correct.

noun

1. an estimate that is too low.

underestimate

/ ˌʌndərˈɛstɪˌmeɪt /

verb

1. to make too low an estimate of

   he underestimated the cost

2. to think insufficiently highly of

   to underestimate a person

noun

1. too low an estimate

Usage

Underestimate is sometimes wrongly used where overestimate is meant: the importance of his work cannot be overestimated (not cannot be underestimated )

Other Word Forms

• underestimation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of underestimate¹

First recorded in 1805–15; under- + estimate

Example Sentences

By then I could already tell that people often underestimated her.

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I grossly underestimated the sheer scale of the elite ramp involved in driving this thing higher.

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"I think people maybe underestimate the amount of problems that these wet wipes cause."

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Recent market fears are “underestimating the sheer overwhelming demand for compute over the next few years,” Luria said, citing trends across large cloud providers, neoclouds and frontier AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

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‘Many traders underestimate the number of hours that they need to devote each day to trading. It is not a part-time job.’

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Related Words

• belittle 
• miscalculate 
• underrate 
• undervalue