overestimate
part of speech
verb (overestimate, overestimates, overestimated, overestimating); noun (an overestimate, overestimates)
meaning for a pupil
1) To guess or think that an amount is bigger than it really is. tree →
2) To think someone or something is better, stronger or more important than they really are. tree →
3) (noun) A guess that is too large. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths lessons, estimating means making a sensible guess; an overestimate is higher than the true answer, and rounding up gives an overestimate. In everyday life, people overestimate how much they can do in a day. Phrases: «don't overestimate», «a slight overestimate».
examples
- I overestimated how many sweets were in the jar. tree →
- Rounding 48 up to 50 gives an overestimate. tree →
- We overestimated how far we could walk and got very tired. tree →
- Don't overestimate your strength when lifting boxes. tree →
- My guess of 300 was an overestimate; the answer was 271. tree →
- The team overestimated the other side and were surprised to win. tree →
- Do not let your vanity make you overestimate your powers. tree →
note
Opposite: underestimate. In maths: overestimate = estimate bigger than the real answer; e.g. estimating 6.8 × 3 as 7 × 3 = 21 is an overestimate of 20.4. Regular verb. «Over-» means too much.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «overestimate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.