Underestimate

How to spell underestimate

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce underestimate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does underestimate mean?

1. verbTo judge something to be smaller, cheaper, or less significant than it actually is.
2. nounA judgement or figure that falls short of the true value or amount.

Underestimate in a sentence

• verb

  Many homeowners underestimate how long renovations will take.

• noun

  The original budget proved to be a serious underestimate.

• verb

  Never underestimate the cost of running a small business.

• noun

  His quick underestimate of the crowd size was far below the official count.

Where does underestimate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word joins the native English prefix under-, meaning 'below' or 'too little', to the verb estimate, which English took from the Latin aestimare, meaning 'to value, appraise, or reckon the worth of something'. Latin aestimare originally referred to setting a monetary value or a price, and its sense gradually widened to cover judging quantity, size, or importance. Estimate itself entered English in the 1500s, and under- was prefixed to it during the 1800s to express the act of judging something to be smaller or less important than it truly is. The closely related word 'esteem' shares the same aestimare root, since to esteem someone is, at heart, to value them highly. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: writers reach the '-estim-' part and can drop or muddle the vowel, while the silent rhythm of 'under' plus 'estimate' tempts an extra or missing letter.

How the word is built

• under- (below, too little)
• estim (from Latin aestimare: to value, appraise)
• -ate (verb suffix)