STUMBLED Synonyms: 124 Similar and Opposite Words

stumbled

verb

past tense of stumble

as in fell

to go down from an upright position suddenly and involuntarily the bride stumbled on the altar steps and landed smack in the arms of the minister

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in struggled

to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually stumbled twice while she was reciting the "Gettysburg Address"

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in shuffled

to move heavily or clumsily the tipsy revelers left the path and wearily stumbled through the tangled undergrowth

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in fumbled

to make a mistake that network announcer rarely stumbles when he's on the air

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of stumbled Then Sánchez’s eyes drifted up, his feet stumbled to a stop, and the ball bounced feet away from him on the turf. — Mitch Bannon, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2026 The 40-year-old woman stumbled, sustaining an injury, police said. — Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 20 Aug. 2026 Their disappearance was discovered only two hours later, when tourists stumbled upon two Antonello paintings, apparently abandoned by the assailants, leaning against the museum fence. — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 18 Aug. 2026 Vulcan has stumbled due to ongoing problems with the performance of its solid rocket boosters, which are provided by Northrop Grumman. — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 17 Aug. 2026 Construction workers in Belgium stumbled upon a stash of gold believed to be worth more than $10 million during renovation work on a building. — CBS News, 15 Aug. 2026 Andropov died in 1984, and Gorbachev took more than a year to gain power while the Kremlin stumbled along under the caretaker regime of the grievously ill Konstantin Chernenko. — Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 14 Aug. 2026 According to The New York Times, a detective within the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department who had been assigned to dig into the Shakur cold case stumbled upon Davis’ memoir and used it as evidence to build his case against him. — Marlow Stern, Variety, 10 Aug. 2026 Advertisement But the test favored Claude by selecting cases where a researcher had already stumbled. — Harry Booth, Time, 7 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for stumbled

Verb

Rincker, a German immigrant, was known for casting the bell that hung from the first Cook County Courthouse, which was felled by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

— Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 2026
Frightened that she may be plagued by the same mental illness that felled her mom, Gemma stubbornly refuses to believe anything is wrong.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of fell

Verb

The old football adage about teams making their biggest improvements between their first and second games might not apply in the NFL preseason, when personnel are constantly being shuffled in and out of the action.

— Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 21 Aug. 2026
Canden Arciniega shuffled on the hot granite terrace on a mid-August morning, counting the names on her list.

— Sophia Solano, Washington Post, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of shuffled

Verb

In the bathroom, my fingers fumbled in the inner pocket of my jacket, searching for the passport.

— Ledio Cakaj, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2026
Despite rebounding with the wildly entertaining F9 in 2021, the Fast franchise fumbled the 10th chapter, which underperformed at the box office and didn’t exactly get fans hyped for the follow-up.

— Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of fumbled

Verb

The bear scratched his arm, and the victim tripped and injured his foot while trying to escape, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

— Jon Haworth, ABC News, 19 Aug. 2026
His starting wide receivers both blew their knees out before week five and his starting quarterback tripped on his kid's skateboard and dislocated his elbow.

— Austin Perry OutKick, FOXNews.com, 18 Aug. 2026

Definition of tripped

Verb

Rubio is the president’s top adviser on both national security and diplomacy at a moment when the United States has blundered into an unpopular war that appears to be a strategic catastrophe.

— David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 11 May 2026
Padres fielders blundered in three of his outings.

— Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Apr. 2026