Word.ws English Dictionary

misunderestimate

misunderestimate verb: to underestimate mistakenly or wrongly; to misestimate with an error on the lower side.

Verb

misunderestimate (third-person singular simple present misunderestimates, present participle misunderestimating, simple past and past participle misunderestimated)

  1. (nonstandard, malapropism or humorous) To underestimate mistakenly or wrongly; to misestimate with an error on the lower side.
    • . . .is almost sure to misunderstand and misunderestimate the significance of the question at hand.1897 April 17, “American Diplomacy on the Bosphorous”, in The Outlook
    • Now in the very earliest years of the eighteenth century it is understandable that, owing to the inevitable, due to our never-to-be-misunderestimated Frederick the Gross . . .1975, Thomas Merton, My Argument With the Gestapo

Examples of misunderestimate in a sentence

  • And I think after Three Mile Island, not only does the NRC itself understand that it sadly misunderestimated the number of ways in . . .1980, Accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Powerplant: Oversight Hearings:
  • . . . not only the disciples within their accounts, had seriously misunderestimated the life and teaching of Jesus.1992, Adelbert Denaux, John and the Synoptics:
  • If you understand the power -- if you misunderestimate the power of the intense bureaucracy in these agencies and departments and federal institutions, you go, they stay.1997 Aug. 29, John Conyers (D-MI), "Delivers Remarks to the Department of Agriculture's Coalition of Minority Employees"
  • Hence, while anticipating incoming fire, here are several factors for why even the most liberal of Democrats should not "misunderestimate" — my favorite Bushism — our prez.2003 April 30, Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Synonyms of misunderestimate

Antonyms

Forms of misunderestimate

third-person singular presentmisunderestimates
present participlemisunderestimating
past participlemisunderestimated
pastmisunderestimated

Origin of misunderestimate

From mis- + underestimate, perhaps under influence of misunderstand.

Words formed from misunderestimate

Questions about misunderestimate

What does misunderestimate mean?
Misunderestimate means to underestimate mistakenly or wrongly; to misestimate with an error on the lower side.
How do you use misunderestimate in a sentence?
And I think after Three Mile Island, not only does the NRC itself understand that it sadly misunderestimated the number of ways in . . .
What part of speech is misunderestimate?
Misunderestimate is a verb.
What is the past tense of misunderestimate?
The past tense of misunderestimate is misunderestimated.

Words near misunderestimate in the dictionary

  1. mistypings
  2. misua
  3. Misuluan
  4. Misumalpa
  5. Misumalpan
  6. misunderestimate
  7. misunderestimated
  8. misunderestimates
  9. misunderestimating
  10. misunderestimation
  11. misunderestimations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: misunderestimate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-misunderestimate.wav.

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