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 Athletic Club stumbled through most of last season, in part due to star forward Nico Williams never reaching 100 per cent fitness. — Dermot Corrigan, New York Times, 14 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 Some stopped during their lunch break, while others stumbled across the competition by chance. — ABC News, 8 Aug. 2026 Advertisement But the test favored Claude by selecting cases where a researcher had already stumbled. — Harry Booth, Time, 7 Aug. 2026 She was accepted into Stanford University’s doctoral program after graduating with honors from Bryn Mawr College, but stumbled into a long career as a newswoman. — Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News, 5 Aug. 2026 Basin stumbled backward over two beach chairs and fell to the sand. — Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 5 Aug. 2026 Last year’s Jayhawks stumbled to a 5-7 record and failed to qualify for a bowl game for the second consecutive season. — Kansas City Star, 5 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for stumbled

Verb

Mixed Pro Doubles Recap Roos van Reek & Jack Munro stayed out of trouble and avoided the early knockout round upsets that be felled many of the other top seeds to claim the Mixed title and guarantee the double-double for themselves on the weekend.

— Todd Boss, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026
The storm felled trees and power lines and caused serious flooding that swept some 100 homes from their foundations on the Big Island, authorities said.

— ABC News, ABC News, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of fell

Verb

Kyrgios underwent a full wrist reconstruction in September 2023, after suffering a full rupture of a key ligament that stabilizes the joint, and has struggled to generate any kind of momentum since.

— James Hansen, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2026
Firefighters struggled to reach people trapped on the upper floors as thick smoke engulfed the building, a police officer told the news agency.

— ABC News, ABC News, 19 Aug. 2026

Definition of struggled

Verb

The Playoff remains parked at 12 teams, and some G6 conferences shuffled teams, now including North Dakota State and Sacramento State.

— Jason Kirk, New York Times, 31 July 2026
Black voters were shuffled around Houston, with much of the previous 9th Congressional District becoming the new 18th District.

— Rahul Mukherjee, NPR, 23 July 2026

Definition of shuffled

Verb

Lake Brantley appeared to have picked up the first down on third down but the ball was fumbled backwards to put the Patriots in fourth and long.

— Buddy Collings, The Orlando Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2026
After Carter Jensen flew out to deep center field, Caglianone tagged from second base and kept running toward home as outfielder Andy Pages fumbled the baseball out of his glove.

— Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of fumbled

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

Definition of blundered

Verb

That was broken up by Owens, who stomped Gunther and then caught him with a big clothesline.

— Blake Oestriecher, Forbes.com, 2 Aug. 2026
Ten members of a Pennsylvania high school football team, including several coaches, face charges after a player was allegedly stomped with cleats, and jabbed in the buttocks with a broomstick.

— Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 30 July 2026

Definition of stomped

Verb

Farage, who was a major player in getting Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, has had strong polling nationally though his numbers have slipped during months of scrutiny of his finances.

— ABC News, ABC News, 14 Aug. 2026
Sanders, a fourth-round pick in 2024, is a downfield receiving threat who had slipped to third on the depth chart behind Tremble and Evans.

— Joseph Person, New York Times, 13 Aug. 2026