overestimate

From over- +‎ estimate.

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvəɹˈɛstɪmeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvəɹˈɛstɪmət/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

overestimate (third-person singular simple present overestimates, present participle overestimating, simple past and past participle overestimated)

1. To judge or calculate too highly.

   I overestimated the number of attendees, and bought far too much food for the party.

   • 2016, S.A. Patin, Pollution and the Biological Resources of the Oceans, →ISBN, page 48:

     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.

   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎^[1], page 15:

     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.

• (antonym(s) of “to judge too highly”): underestimate

overestimate (plural overestimates)

1. An estimate that is too high.
   • 2013, Peter Karl Kresl, Jaime Sobrino, Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Urban Economies:

     The employment projection for the metropolitan area for 1985 was an overestimate by about 12 percent.

   • 2019 October 4, Lola Fadulu, “Trump Administration Unveils More Cuts to Food Stamp Program”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     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.