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 In Season 1, the publication of Lee’s latest exposé – a deep dive into the powerful Washberg family – is immediately followed by the suspicious suicide of Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson), and Lee knows he’s stumbled onto something big. —

Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 11 Mar. 2026 But the Illini stumbled by losing four of six after that before winning their final two against bottom-dwellers Oregon and Maryland. —

Colleen Kane, Chicago Tribune, 10 Mar. 2026 His replacement Michael Kovala kept Japan scoreless through seven innings but stumbled in the eighth and picked up the loss. —

ABC News, 10 Mar. 2026 While searching for a weekend retreat from their home in Cape Town, the Duseks stumbled upon the property (formerly the grounds of a hunting lodge) in Limpopo. —

Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 9 Mar. 2026 Dallas stumbled, fumbled and grumbled its way to a 122-92 loss, which was somehow not its most lopsided game of the season. —

Mike Curtis, Dallas Morning News, 9 Mar. 2026 Some worthy competitors simply stumbled upon the scene by chance. —

Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 9 Mar. 2026 Spotting this superconducting dome is often a sign that researchers have stumbled onto the right ingredients for high-temperature superconductivity. —

Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 8 Mar. 2026 Dog walkers recently stumbled across strange-looking footprints on a Scottish beach — a discovery that triggered an urgent archaeological excavation. —

Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 8 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for stumbled

Verb

Apartment buildings were felled by air strikes, and smoke billowed from the blasts; the buzz of Israeli drones filled the air.

— Rania Abouzeid, New Yorker, 5 Mar. 2026
Too many people, particularly those in my age group, have been felled by a cold that morphed into pneumonia, or a UTI that landed them in the hospital, or a simple stumble on a floor mat that resulted in surgery and months of physical therapy.

— Donna Vickroy, Chicago Tribune, 27 Feb. 2026