overestimate

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To judge or calculate too highly.

   • I overestimated the number of attendees, and bought far too much food for the party.
   • Nevertheless, the role played by vertical transport (in particular, by biosedimentation) in self-purification of seas and oceans from chlorinated hydrocarbons must not be overestimated.
   • One must be especially careful when using Google to determine frequency as there is a very real risk of fantastically overestimating the frequency and subsequent importance of a term.
2. 2

   An estimate that is too high.

   • The employment projection for the metropolitan area for 1985 was an overestimate by about 12 percent.
   • The department pointed to a study it conducted in 2017 that found that, in some states, overestimates of utility costs were giving some people too many food stamps, while in others, people were getting too few.

The neighborhood

• antonymunderestimate