What does "second-guess" mean?

To vet or evaluate; to criticize or correct, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc.

What is a synonym for "second-guess"?

Common synonyms include: consider, agitate, bethink, muse, outguess, overthink.

Pronounced //ˈsɛk.əndˌɡɛs//.

//ˈsɛk.əndˌɡɛs// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Verb

1
To vet or evaluate; to criticize or correct, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc. transitive
"Please don't try to second-guess the procedure that we have already refined and adopted."
2
evaluate or criticize with hindsight wordnet
3
To anticipate or predict someone's actions or thoughts by guesswork. intransitive, transitive
"In this day and age, it's so easy to stress / 'Cause people are strange and you can never second-guess"
4
attempt to anticipate or predict wordnet

"Yanni started to second-guess himself."

A back-formation from second guesser, originally from baseball. First use appears c. 1941.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.