Word.ws English Dictionary

second-guessing

second-guessing noun: the act or habit of vetting, evaluating; criticizing or correcting, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc. Also the present participle and gerund of second-guess.

Noun

second-guessing (countable and uncountable, plural second-guessings)

  1. The act or habit of vetting, evaluating; criticizing or correcting, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc.
  2. The act or habit of anticipating or predicting someone's actions or thoughts by guesswork.

Also used as

second-guessing is also the present participle and gerund of second-guess.

Forms of second-guessing

pluralsecond-guessings

Questions about second-guessing

What does second-guessing mean?
Second-guessing means the act or habit of vetting, evaluating; criticizing or correcting, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc.
What part of speech is second-guessing?
Second-guessing is a noun.
What is the plural of second-guessing?
The plural of second-guessing is second-guessings.

Words near second-guessing in the dictionary

  1. second-guess
  2. second-guessed
  3. second-guesser
  4. second-guessers
  5. second-guesses
  6. second-guessing
  7. second-guessings
  8. second-half
  9. second-hand
  10. second-hand shop
  11. second-hand shops

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: second-guessing (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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