"second-guessing" meaning in English

See second-guessing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: second-guessings [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} second-guessing (countable and uncountable, plural second-guessings)
  1. The act or habit of vetting, evaluating; criticizing or correcting, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-second-guessing-en-noun-nLcl9S28 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 51 37 12 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 55 35 10 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 59 33 8
  2. The act or habit of anticipating or predicting someone's actions or thoughts by guesswork. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-second-guessing-en-noun-tJZLHzo0

Verb

Head templates: {{head|en|verb form}} second-guessing
  1. present participle and gerund of second-guess Tags: form-of, gerund, participle, present Form of: second-guess
    Sense id: en-second-guessing-en-verb-o9yhXng6

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "second-guessings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "second-guessing (countable and uncountable, plural second-guessings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "51 37 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "55 35 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "59 33 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The act or habit of vetting, evaluating; criticizing or correcting, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-second-guessing-en-noun-nLcl9S28",
      "links": [
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "habit",
          "habit"
        ],
        [
          "vet",
          "vet"
        ],
        [
          "evaluating",
          "evaluating"
        ],
        [
          "criticizing",
          "criticizing"
        ],
        [
          "correct",
          "correct"
        ],
        [
          "hindsight",
          "hindsight"
        ],
        [
          "presuming",
          "presuming"
        ],
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ],
        [
          "method",
          "method"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The act or habit of anticipating or predicting someone's actions or thoughts by guesswork."
      ],
      "id": "en-second-guessing-en-noun-tJZLHzo0",
      "links": [
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "habit",
          "habit"
        ],
        [
          "anticipating",
          "anticipate"
        ],
        [
          "predict",
          "predict"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "thought",
          "thought"
        ],
        [
          "guesswork",
          "guesswork"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "second-guessing"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb form"
      },
      "expansion": "second-guessing",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "second-guess"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "present participle and gerund of second-guess"
      ],
      "id": "en-second-guessing-en-verb-o9yhXng6",
      "links": [
        [
          "second-guess",
          "second-guess#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "form-of",
        "gerund",
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "second-guessing"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English non-lemma forms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "English verb forms",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "second-guessings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "second-guessing (countable and uncountable, plural second-guessings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The act or habit of vetting, evaluating; criticizing or correcting, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "habit",
          "habit"
        ],
        [
          "vet",
          "vet"
        ],
        [
          "evaluating",
          "evaluating"
        ],
        [
          "criticizing",
          "criticizing"
        ],
        [
          "correct",
          "correct"
        ],
        [
          "hindsight",
          "hindsight"
        ],
        [
          "presuming",
          "presuming"
        ],
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ],
        [
          "method",
          "method"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The act or habit of anticipating or predicting someone's actions or thoughts by guesswork."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "habit",
          "habit"
        ],
        [
          "anticipating",
          "anticipate"
        ],
        [
          "predict",
          "predict"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "thought",
          "thought"
        ],
        [
          "guesswork",
          "guesswork"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "second-guessing"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English non-lemma forms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "English verb forms",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb form"
      },
      "expansion": "second-guessing",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "second-guess"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "present participle and gerund of second-guess"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "second-guess",
          "second-guess#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "form-of",
        "gerund",
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "second-guessing"
}

Download raw JSONL data for second-guessing meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.