over·es·ti·mate
ˌō-vər-ˈe-stə-ˌmāt 
overestimated; overestimating
: to estimate or value (someone or something) too highly
… the senator had been so responsible about his potential tax liabilities that he had substantially overestimated what he owed the government.—
David Burnham
David Burnham… our habit of overestimating our knowledge and underestimating our ignorance …—David A. Shaywitz
David A. ShaywitzThe emotional power of this reunion can't be overestimated.—Joe Klein
Joe Klein"I mean that I am afraid I overestimated him. I don't think that he is a painter of the first rank."—Henry James
Henry James
over·es·ti·mate
ˌō-vər-ˈe-stə-mət
plural overestimates
: an estimate that is too high
overestimates of the company's future profits
Diamond still attacks the growth projections that the utilities have put forward, arguing that the … figures were overestimates …—Norman Boucher
Norman BoucherSynonyms
Examples of overestimate in a Sentence
Verb
the contractors overestimated their ability to do the work on such short notice
Recent Examples on the WebPaolo Confino, Fortune, 7 May 2024
For example, a recent Purdue University study found that the public has been overestimating food inflation, with Republicans more likely than Democrats to do so.
Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.
—Russ Wiles, The Arizona Republic, 5 May 2024
Read More: The Daunting Task of Measuring Dinosaur Intelligence
Covering all Bases
The team found that the earlier study overestimated brain size, which, of course, affects the potential number of neurons.
—Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 29 Apr. 2024
Our initial guess is partisan polls overestimate support for the allied candidate by 2 percentage points, but this effect will shrink (or grow) if the data reveals a different answer.
—G. Elliott Morris, ABC News, 25 Apr. 2024
Some worried that the computer programs could overestimate risks, causing policyholders to pay more.
—Stephen Hobbs, Sacramento Bee, 24 Apr. 2024
When you first glance at a clock, the second hand seems to pause before continuing its regular movement because your brain is overestimating how long the second hand is in that position.
—Paul M. Sutter, Discover Magazine, 23 Apr. 2024
According to a report by the Insurance Information Institute, 60% of millennials overestimate the cost of life insurance.
—Ebony Flake, Essence, 18 Apr. 2024
And the ways in which Bandit continually overestimates his ability to avoid injury or public embarrassment at the hands of his adorable yet frequently exasperating daughters provides an endless source of comedy.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 15 Apr. 2024
Marshall Ingwerson, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Feb. 2024
Kimmel added that Rodgers suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which states that people with limited competence overestimate their skills or intelligence.
—Mike Freeman, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2024
In a Bain & Co. survey of 352 global executives, 70% said most M&A deals overestimate synergies—a major reason deals disappoint.
—Mike Keech, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
These overestimates may just be psychological flukes.
—Politifact Staff Writer, Dallas News, 17 July 2023
Efficiencies are often measured by plotting a curve of current against voltage—but for perovskites, the curves differ depending on whether the voltage is increasing or decreasing, an anomaly known as hysteresis that may have led to overestimates of perovskite performance in the past.
—IEEE Spectrum, 7 Jan. 2015
And even those lackluster stats could be an overestimate, because they’re drawn from the National Immunization Surveys, which is done by phone and so reflects the answers of people willing to take federal surveyors’ calls.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2023
The studios said just after the talks broke off that the per-subscriber charge would cost them $800 million annually, a figure SAG-AFTRA said was a vast overestimate.
—Andrew Dalton, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2023
Yet even if each patient generated a book’s worth of text (a gross overestimate), this is far less data than what is currently used to train existing foundation models.
—Jenna Wiens, STAT, 25 Aug. 2023
Verb
All three, according to Druckenmiller, overestimated the gravity of the economic crisis the pandemic brought on—and therefore implemented the wrong policies.
—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 7 May 2024
For example, a recent Purdue University study found that the public has been overestimating food inflation, with Republicans more likely than Democrats to do so.
Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.
—Russ Wiles, The Arizona Republic, 5 May 2024
Read More: The Daunting Task of Measuring Dinosaur Intelligence
Covering all Bases
The team found that the earlier study overestimated brain size, which, of course, affects the potential number of neurons.
—Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 29 Apr. 2024
Our initial guess is partisan polls overestimate support for the allied candidate by 2 percentage points, but this effect will shrink (or grow) if the data reveals a different answer.
—G. Elliott Morris, ABC News, 25 Apr. 2024
Some worried that the computer programs could overestimate risks, causing policyholders to pay more.
—Stephen Hobbs, Sacramento Bee, 24 Apr. 2024
When you first glance at a clock, the second hand seems to pause before continuing its regular movement because your brain is overestimating how long the second hand is in that position.
—Paul M. Sutter, Discover Magazine, 23 Apr. 2024
According to a report by the Insurance Information Institute, 60% of millennials overestimate the cost of life insurance.
—Ebony Flake, Essence, 18 Apr. 2024
And the ways in which Bandit continually overestimates his ability to avoid injury or public embarrassment at the hands of his adorable yet frequently exasperating daughters provides an endless source of comedy.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 15 Apr. 2024
Noun
When people are shown polling data that corrects this overestimate, their own support for anti-democratic measures drops by more than a third.
—Marshall Ingwerson, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Feb. 2024
Kimmel added that Rodgers suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which states that people with limited competence overestimate their skills or intelligence.
—Mike Freeman, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2024
In a Bain & Co. survey of 352 global executives, 70% said most M&A deals overestimate synergies—a major reason deals disappoint.
—Mike Keech, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
These overestimates may just be psychological flukes.
—Politifact Staff Writer, Dallas News, 17 July 2023
Efficiencies are often measured by plotting a curve of current against voltage—but for perovskites, the curves differ depending on whether the voltage is increasing or decreasing, an anomaly known as hysteresis that may have led to overestimates of perovskite performance in the past.
—IEEE Spectrum, 7 Jan. 2015
And even those lackluster stats could be an overestimate, because they’re drawn from the National Immunization Surveys, which is done by phone and so reflects the answers of people willing to take federal surveyors’ calls.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2023
The studios said just after the talks broke off that the per-subscriber charge would cost them $800 million annually, a figure SAG-AFTRA said was a vast overestimate.
—Andrew Dalton, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2023
Yet even if each patient generated a book’s worth of text (a gross overestimate), this is far less data than what is currently used to train existing foundation models.
—Jenna Wiens, STAT, 25 Aug. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'overestimate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near overestimate
Cite this Entry
“Overestimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overestimate. Accessed 17 May. 2024.
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