underthink
underthink verb: to give insufficient thought or consideration to; fail to consider adequately.
Verb
underthink (third-person singular simple present underthinks, present participle underthinking, simple past and past participle underthought)
- To give insufficient thought or consideration to; fail to consider adequately.
- There was a new one; usually, I underthink these things.2007, Brian Haig, Man in the Middle
- This gives us plenty of opportunity to overthink — or underthink — the problem, and this is where we really start to bollix things up.2008, Jeffrey Kluger, Simplexity
Antonyms of underthink
Forms of underthink
| third-person singular present | underthinks |
|---|---|
| present participle | underthinking |
| past participle | underthought |
| past | underthought |
Origin of underthink
From under- + think. Compare Old English underþenċan (“to look into, consider”).
Words formed from underthink
Questions about underthink
- What does underthink mean?
- Underthink means to give insufficient thought or consideration to; fail to consider adequately.
- What part of speech is underthink?
- Underthink is a verb.
- What is the past tense of underthink?
- The past tense of underthink is underthought.
Words near underthink in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: underthink (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underthink.wav.
Cite this entry: “underthink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underthink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.